WASHINGTON — A prominent Washington watchdog group is suing Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, trying to block him from serving as one of the administration’s top envoys without disclosing his personal finances and potential conflicts of interest. The group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, argues that Kushner’s role as a chief negotiator in the U.S.’s most prominent ongoing foreign policy concerns means he should be considered an official government employee and comply with all relevant requirements. Kushner and Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy, are considered to be the president’s closest and most influential diplomats. Neither is Senate-confirmed, and Witkoff is a formal employee, although the wealthy investor does not draw a taxpayer-funded salary. The White House has repeatedly said Kushner remains a private citizen and is doing his diplomatic duties on a volunteer basis. But in the lawsuit, CREW said Kushner is representing the United States while simultaneously running an investment firm that manages billions of dollars of foreign-owned assets. “While his personal business interests abroad raise serious conflict-of-interest concerns, he has not been properly vetted for his government role,” read the legal complaint, filed Wednesday. ”(A)nd he has evaded transparency obligations that aim to ensure that he exercises government authority for the good of the American people and not himself.” ‘Without merit’ The Constitution’s appointments clause and a post-Watergate ethics law are meant to ensure that federal officials are properly vetted and that their assets are adequately disclosed. Kushner’s unofficial role has made him central to the biggest foreign policy challenges of the second Trump administration, including the wars between Israel and Hamas, Ukraine and Russia and the U.S. and Iran. He was a primary negotiator of the peace plan that was inked between Israel and Hamas last year, and he regularly travels abroad to meet with world leaders as a representative of his father-in-law. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, were formal government employees during the first Trump administration and filed the appropriate financial disclosures, although neither took a salary. Though Kushner had some domestic policies in his portfolio during Trump’s first term in office, he has been mainly focused on foreign policy the second time around. Chad Mizelle, an attorney for Kushner, said in a statement on X that the lawsuit is “without merit” and that CREW lacks standing to challenge him. CREW insists that it is directly harmed because Kushner is depriving it of 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,” said Mizelle, who served as chief of staff at the Justice Department from the start of the second Trump administration before leaving government service last year. Meanwhile, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly attacked CREW as an “unserious, Trump-deranged organization that has been attacking President Trump, his family, and his administration since the first term.” Calling Kushner 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 himself has brushed off conflict-of-interest questions in the past, saying in a CBS News interview last year that his business and financial connections were actually an asset. “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 the Israeli hostages who were freed by Hamas as part of the October 2025 ceasefire agreement. Also named in the lawsuit are Witkoff, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in their official capacities. Seung Min Kim, The Associated Press
