'TWIXT TYWIN AND LITTLEFINGER:

Like smoking crack or joining the Communist Party after the Moscow purge trials, supporting Donald Trump makes you say and do stupid things you'll come to regret. Distinguishing Jared Kushner's submission to the genre of Trump defenses from those of other Trumpkins was its exploitation of the Holocaust. Kushner tells us that this is the first time he has shared this story of familial agony, an admission that, given the context, would be execrable enough even without his galling accusation that it is his father-in-law's "detractors" who are "manipulate[ing] the public." And Kushner revealed this heirloom of family suffering--which is hardly his own suffering--for what? To defend a man who plays political footsie with the former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan?

To understand how Jared Kushner could reach such depths, one must first understand that not only is he the son-in-law of an abusive sociopath, but the son of one as well. Charles Kushner, a child of Holocaust survivors, inherited a family real estate development business and grew it into a billion-dollar empire with properties across six states. If one wants to rise from mere landlord to true real estate mogul, it is necessary--given the role that the legislative and judicial systems play in determining who may use property to what end, i.e. the value of property--to become a political power broker. And so Charles took a lesson from his future in-law Donald Trump: He invested heavily in politics, becoming one of the biggest Democratic donors in the country. His greatest investment was a young New Jersey politico named Jim McGreevy, who as governor, appointed Kushner to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Charles Kushner seemed to have an insatiable appetite for money and power, and recognized the role politics played at the nexus of both. To maximize his influence, Kushner circumvented federal campaign finance laws by funneling money to candidates and elected officials with donations made in the names of other people and through the over 100 separate real estate development partnerships he controlled. In one of this already absurd campaign's more novelistic ironies, Kushner's dirty dealings caught the attention of a young, ambitious federal prosecutor named Chris Christie, who opened up an investigation that called Kushner's sister, Esther, and brother-in-law, Billy, as witnesses. Determined to prevent Billy from testifying, Charles set up a honey trap for his brother-in-law in a motel room--fully equipped with video cameras--and paid a prostitute $10,000. Kushner then sent a tape of the assignation to his sister, who promptly turned her brother's attempt at blackmail over to the authorities.

Now charged with obstruction of justice and witness tampering in addition to campaign finance violations, Kushner pleaded guilty to all 18 felonious counts against him. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison, and had to pay one of the highest ever fines levied by the Federal Election Commission--all of which amounted to a slap on the wrist given the nature of his conduct, the mountains of incontrovertible evidence against him, and his lack of any evident remorse, despite pleading guilty. "What is truly extraordinary is that Charles Kushner has failed to accept full responsibility for his outrageous criminal conduct," said Christie, who today is one of Trump's closest advisers, alongside the son of the man he had arrested.

Kushner was also implicated in the simultaneous downfall of his political protégé McGreevy, who became infamous for a live televised resignation during which he announced to the world that he was "a gay American." Thanks to this cynical deflection, most today remember McGreevy as having done nothing worse than commit marital infidelity under the duress of his decision to marry a woman and live his life in the closet. But the main reason McGreevy was forced to step down from his post was that his former lover, an Israeli man named Golan Cipel whom he had put on the state payroll in a make-work job, was threatening to sue him for sexual harassment.

So who was Golan Cipel? McGreevy had met Cipel several years earlier in Israel, and it was Charles Kushner who sponsored the young Israeli's work visa to the United States, and then generously employed Cipel in one of his companies before the governor hired him. Some speculated that Kushner, recognizing the blackmail potential of this arrangement, persuaded Cipel to threaten McGreevy with exposure. That would explain why, 10 minutes before McGreevy's tearful confession, a lawyer representing Cipel called McGreevy's office conveying the message that the jilted lover would keep their affair secret if the governor fulfilled an odd request: grant a charter to Touro College allowing it to open a medical school in New Jersey--a medical school for which Charles Kushner had raised money and hoped to name after his late mother. (At the time, Kushner, through his lawyer, denied any involvement.)

With his father in the slammer, Jared became the nominal head of the family business, and he remained a loyal son. Unlike Andrew and Mark Madoff, who never spoke a word to their dad after turning him over to the feds, Jared regularly visited Charles in federal prison, trekking down to Alabama once a week, and defended him publicly. Jared's role in this lurid, Jewish "Sopranos"-like clan explains how the scion of one tri-state crime family could fit so naturally into another.

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