Jared Kushner Owns Several Mice-Infested Apartment Buildings In Baltimore
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner owns more than a dozen apartment buildings in Baltimore that have received hundreds of code violations, The Washington Post reported.
Kushner’s Baltimore enterprises were brought up again this weekend, after his father-in-law President Trump called the city, represented in part by House Oversight Committee chair Elijah Cummings, a “rodent infested mess” where “no human” would want to live.
….As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2019
“It is certainly ironic that the president’s own son-in-law was complicit in contributing to some of the neglect that the president purports to be so concerned about,” Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski Jr. told the Post.
Many of the 17 complexes in Maryland where Kushner Cos. has rental unites are in Baltimore City. After Trump’s comments, the company said: “Kushner Companies is proud to own thousands of apartments in the Baltimore area.” (Kushner left his post as chief executive of the company in 2017 to work in the White House.)
Baltimore County officials found in 2017 that some of those apartments amassed more than 200 code violations in one year, which were dealt with only after county officials threatened fines, according to the Post. Nine properties didn’t comply and were told to pay. The problems included mouse infestations, mold and maggots, The New York Times and Pro Publica reported then. Kushner’s company also has been sued for charging excessive fees and other unlawful rental practices.
Alyssa Fisher is a writer at the Forward. Email her at fisher@forward.com, or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO