Jared Kushner personally ordered a software developer at his newspaper to remove stories that were critical of his friends or real estate colleagues, reports Buzzfeed News. In 2012, Kushner, now a senior White House adviser and son-in-law to President Donald Trump, went around the editors at the New York Observer, the newspaper he owned and operated, to order the removal of a handful of articles from the website.
Buzzfeed writes that Kushner requested the removal of a 2010 story about a settlement between then-New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo and real estate firm Vantage Properties regarding allegations that the company had illegally forced tenants out of their apartments to raise rents. He also ordered another 2010 article about Vantage’s top exec, Neil Rubler, to be removed. The URL seemed to suggest Rubler was on a “10 worst landlords list.” He also ordered the removal of a 2012 story about NBA Commissioner Adam Silver buying a $6.75 million apartment in a tony New York City building. Kushner and Silver are friends.
Austin Smith, a software employee who worked on staff for the Observer Media Group and then as an outside consultant, told Buzzfeed that he fielded and complied with these requests from Kushner.
“That Kushner, a newspaper owner of all people, would participate in an administration that labels news media the enemy of the people, is an affront to the very notion of the freedom of the press and an utter betrayal of those who worked hard and in good faith for him at the Observer,” Smith told BuzzFeed.
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