Dutch intelligence service spied on phone of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner: book
The Dutch Military Intelligence Service (MIVD) reportedly monitored the phone of Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of the U.S. president Donald Trump and his negotiator in the wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran, according to a new book by American investigative journalist Matthew Cole. The MIVD started monitoring Kushner’s phone in 2018 with the help of a Russian defector, a hacker who previously worked for the Russian military intelligence service GRU, according to an excerpt of the book published in Vanity Fair.
According to Cole, a source told him that the MIVD witnessed how Kushner logged into a bank account in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). “What was odd, the source said, was that the money in the account—hundreds of millions of dollars—had come from a bank in Azerbaijan. Most importantly, Kushner appeared to have transferred significant amounts of money from the Dubai account to other individuals, including a warlord, a mercenary, and a one-time hit man,” Cole wrote.
The funds were reportedly provided by the royal families of Saudi Arabia and the UAE and intended to advance political and diplomatic objectives in the Middle East. According to Cole, in addition to Kushner, the Emirati president Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan also had access to the account.
A source said in the book that Kushner was looking for a workaround to achieve his diplomatic goals and promised the Emirati president that he would present their interests to Trump if they contributed to the fund. The goal was to normalize relations with Israel by forcing a breakthrough in the Gaza war. This would enable Trump to continue relations with Israel without losing face.
According to Cole, the MIVD gained access to Kushner’s phone through a former GRU operative. In 2017, the Dutch intelligence service got wind that this operative was en route to the United Kingdom for an espionage mission and asked the British authorities to detain him. The MIVD then presented the man with two options: work as an informant for the Dutch government, or potentially face years in prison in the U.K. for espionage. The Russian man decided to defect and granted the MIVD access to one of the GRU’s most sensitive systems.
While investigating this system, the MIVD found screenshots from Kushner’s iPhone on a server in the Russian city of Rostov. This led the intelligence service to gain direct access to the phone in early 2018, allowing them to view the screen whenever Kushner used the device.
The excerpt of the book published in Vanity Fair does not reveal how long the MIVD had access to Kushner’s phone. The intelligence service told NOS that it does not comment on its operational methods, the extent of its knowledge, or its sources.
Kushner himself denied all the allegations on X. “The allegations made by this author are completely insane and never happened,” Kushner wrote, saying that there is no evidence to support the claims. “No bank statements, wire transfer records, account numbers, transaction dates, or other verifiable details were provided to support these extraordinary accusations.”