Watchdog Group Seeks to Block Jared Kushner From Serving as Volunteer Envoy

WASHINGTON – A leading Washington ethics watchdog has sued Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, seeking to prevent him from continuing to serve as one of the administration’s senior diplomatic representatives without disclosing his personal finances and possible conflicts of interest.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, argues that Kushner’s work as a key negotiator on some of the United States’ most pressing foreign policy issues makes him a government official. As a result, the group says, he should be subject to the same ethics and disclosure requirements as other federal employees.

Kushner and Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy, are widely viewed as President Trump’s closest and most influential diplomatic advisers. Neither has been confirmed by the Senate. Witkoff is formally employed by the government, although the wealthy investor does not receive a taxpayer-funded salary.

The White House has repeatedly maintained that Kushner is a private citizen who performs his diplomatic work voluntarily.

In its lawsuit, however, CREW contends that Kushner is representing the United States while also operating an investment firm that oversees billions of dollars in assets owned by foreign interests.

“While his personal business interests abroad raise serious conflict-of-interest concerns, he has not been properly vetted for his government role,” the legal complaint filed Wednesday states. “And he has evaded transparency obligations that aim to ensure that he exercises government authority for the good of the American people and not himself.”

The Constitution’s appointments clause and a post-Watergate ethics law are designed to ensure that federal officials undergo appropriate vetting and disclose sufficient information about their assets.

Although his position is unofficial, Kushner has become a central figure in the second Trump administration’s biggest foreign policy challenges, including the conflicts involving Israel and Hamas, Ukraine and Russia, and the United States and Iran. He was a lead negotiator in the peace plan reached by Israel and Hamas last year and frequently travels overseas to meet world leaders on behalf of his father-in-law.

Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, served as formal government employees during Trump’s first administration and submitted the required financial disclosures, despite receiving no salaries. Kushner handled several domestic policy issues during that term, but his focus in the second administration has been primarily international affairs.

Chad Mizelle, an attorney representing Kushner, said on X that the lawsuit is “without merit” and argued that CREW does not have legal standing to bring the challenge.

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CREW countered that it has suffered direct harm because Kushner’s status prevents the group from obtaining records that would otherwise be available from government officials.

“Both outside ethics counsel and government ethics attorneys have reviewed Jared Kushner’s volunteer government service and confirmed that his arrangements comply with applicable ethics requirements,” Mizelle said. He previously served as chief of staff at the Justice Department from the beginning of the second Trump administration before leaving government service last year.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly, meanwhile, dismissed CREW as an “unserious, Trump-deranged organization that has been attacking President Trump, his family, and his administration since the first term.”

Describing Kushner as a “proven dealmaker,” Kelly said his “personal business activities have nothing to do with his diplomatic engagements, which he conducts on a volunteer basis at the President’s request and while paying his own expenses.”

Kushner has previously dismissed concerns about potential conflicts of interest. In a CBS News interview last year, he said his business background and international financial relationships were an advantage rather than a liability.

“What people call conflicts of interests, Steve and I call experience and trusted relationships that we have throughout the world,” Kushner said in the interview, referring to Witkoff. “If Steve and I didn’t have these deep relationships, the deal we were able to get done, that freed these hostages, would not have occurred.”

Kushner was referring to Israeli hostages released by Hamas under the October 2025 ceasefire agreement.

The lawsuit also names Witkoff, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in their official capacities.