In his new book, Kentucky Rep. James Comer says he had choice words for Trump relative

David Catanese, McClatchy Washington Bureau on Jan 23, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Rep. James Comer says he invoked an expletive against President Donald Trump’s son-in-law when he felt pressure to retract a statement he made about Jared Kushner’s foreign financial deals.

The recollection comes from last March, when Comer, R-Ky., stated in an interview that Kushner’s business dealings with Saudi Arabia during Trump’s first term crossed an ethical line.

“The next day a GOP consultant close to both Kushner and Representative Kevin McCarthy called telling me that I needed to change my statement,” Comer writes in his new book, “All the President’s Money: Investigating the Secret Foreign Schemes That Made the Biden Family Rich.”

Comer, who did not name the consultant, did not back down, relaying to the operative that he felt Kushner “tested ethics by going to Saudi Arabia so soon after leaving office to secure a legitimate $2 billion investment in those businesses.”

At the time, Comer was pushing his Presidential Ethics Reform Act, a bipartisan bill that would force future presidents and their running mates to disclose two years of tax returns as well as payments, gifts and loans from foreign entities before occupying the White House as well as prohibiting family members from profiting financially from a presidency.

“I explained to the GOP consultant (who was obviously a mouthpiece for Kushner) that under my planned legislation to ban influence peddling, Kushner’s dealing would not be legally allowed,” Comer writes. “I figure I had a direct line to Jared Kushner at that moment, so I finished up the call by instructing the consultant to tell Kushner to f--- off. I hope Kushner was listening on speaker phone.”

Comer makes clear he doesn’t believe Kushner’s lapse was as egregious as that of Hunter Biden, who he believes never had legitimate business overseas and simply cashed in on his father’s name.

In his book, Comer also laments Trump’s ties to Rudy Giuliani as a key reason the credibility of the Hunter Biden laptop story suffered at the time of its initial emergence in 2020.

“Giuliani’s reputation allowed the FBI to falsely label what was obviously Hunter Biden’s actual laptop a Russian disinformation operation, perhaps with Giuliani serving as an accomplice to hurt Joe Biden’s election chances,” Comer writes.

Comer said Giuliani flubbed his role badly and “did near-irreparable harm to the Biden family influence investigation in the process.” Only after the 2020 election did multiple media organizations verify that the laptop was authentic and not a disinformation campaign.

Comer also points fingers at GOP colleagues for stymieing his investigative pursuit of former President Joe Biden. The House Intelligence Committee, then led by Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio and the China Task Force, led by former Rep. Mike Gallagher, held access to classified information from the FBI that Comer had sought.

“But both Turner and Gallagher had no interest in assisting my Oversight investigation. This attitude persisted throughout. It seemed clear they were cowed by the FBI when it should have been the other way around,” Comer writes.

Turner was recently stripped of his Intelligence Committee chairmanship by Speaker Mike Johnson and Gallagher resigned his House seat last year for a lobbying job.

Comer also expressed frustration over then Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision to structure three House committees to lead the impeachment inquiry of Biden: Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means.

The Kentuckian said while he loved and respected Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, his committee staff “was another thing.”

“I knew they were smart. But they had a vastly different communications style and were notorious leakers to their preferred conservative outlets,” Comer writes. “I certainly respect Jason Smith, but why bring in Ways and Means? What the heck was the purpose of that?”

“Plus there was a messaging disconnect. I had gone to great lengths over the past ten months to emphasize that my role was to investigate, not impeach,” Comer continues. “McCarthy was confident we would have the votes. How could he be so sure?”

While Comer eventually came to the conclusion former President Biden should have been impeached as a result of his findings, the House Republican majority never held a vote on the question.