Russiagate was, famously, something of a damp squib. Donald Trump was never a secret Kremlin asset. Moscow did not internet-brainwash the American public into electing him. It was mostly mad bunkum, which the desperate and deluded media pushed relentlessly for months just because they could not accept the idea that a brash, rude real-estate television tycoon was now their Commander in Chief.
But now, with the midterms upon us and a Democratic majority in Congress beckoning, we’re about to have what could be a far more explosive sequel. My working title is Gulfgate: This Time It’s Serious!
Yesterday, Vanity Fair published what appears to be a huge story about Jared Kushner, the US President’s son-in-law. It is an excerpt from Matthew Cole’s new book, Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East.
It’s got some thrilling spy-film elements – including Dutch intelligence agents somehow getting hold of Kushner’s telephone records from a Russian spook who had been turned. And the central allegation is that Kushner had access to secret foreign bank accounts funded by the two most powerful Arab Gulf states, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, amounting to around $2 billion. A slush fund, if you will. There was, it is claimed, an “Alpha” account, held by First Abu Dhabi Bank and run by the brother of UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed, aka MbZ. There was also a “Beta” one, with the Bank of Israel, containing $1 billion which MbZ apparently funneled through Azerbaijan. Unnamed sources claim that, in return for access to the money, Kushner promised MbZ he would “push their agenda with Trump.”
Now, no doubt Cole is a hard-working and truth-seeking journalist, but it’s always worth keeping a level head when reading such sensational claims. Often the stories about international intelligence agents are planted by international intelligence agents, and their agendas can be hard to fathom. There are plenty of western spook-world operatives, for instance, who would be eager to undermine Kushner and Steve Witkoff as they work on their controversial – and perhaps imminent – peace deal with Russia over Ukraine.
Kushner has quickly and adamantly rejected Cole’s allegations as “completely insane,” “categorically false” and “outrageous.” His lawyer Chad Mizelle has said: “There are no bank accounts. They don’t exist.”
But there is little doubt that Trumpworld’s intricate ties to the mega-billions of the sheikhs on the Gulf Cooperation Council will be at the heart of the national and probably Democrat-led conversation from November 3 onward.
There are just too many lines of suspicion. There’s “Kushner Inc.,” as the journalist Vicky Ward branded it. There’s Witkoff’s sons (co-founders of Trump-led crypto venture World Liberty Financial) and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s sons (handed top jobs at investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald) and Trump’s sons (running the Trump Organization), who all appear to be taking nepotistic access to new and lucrative extremes. There’s the infamous Trumpcoin which, with World Liberty Financial, has made billions thanks to more “investment” from those generous men of the Middle East. Two-thirds of Americans, according to a Washington Post poll, believe Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself, and the only question is: what are the other third thinking? He so obviously is: he made $2.2 billion last year. It’s all so brazen that it becomes strangely not shocking. But Gulfgate is only just getting started. Buckle up!
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