Progressive Democrat Lisa McCormick is demanding accountability from Senator Cory Booker after he was the lone Democrat to vote for the confirmation of Charles Kushner as U.S. Ambassador to France, a vote now drawing intensified scrutiny following the release of FBI documents containing a previously unreported allegation of violence against the pardoned felon.
The documents, uploaded to the FBI’s website on August 29 and first reported by The Smoking Gun, reveal that during a 2006 investigation, agents were told that Kushner was alleged to have “beat a Brazilian prostitute and that the woman was left shrieking and crying for at least 20 minutes.”
The allegation was never prosecuted, and the newly released files represent a fourth installment of FBI records on Kushner Companies released under the Freedom of Information Act.
The revelation has ignited a firestorm, with McCormick directly targeting Senator Booker for his pivotal role in Kushner’s confirmation. The Senate confirmed Kushner by a 51-45 vote in May, with Booker casting the only Democratic vote in favor.
“Senator Booker promised to stand up to Trumpism, but when it mattered, he betrayed that promise and instead stood with a convicted criminal and Trump family member,” said McCormick. “This vote, especially in light of this grotesque new allegation, is a betrayal of the values he claims to represent.”
Kushner, a New Jersey real estate billionaire and father of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was convicted in 2005 on 18 counts of tax evasion, illegal campaign donations, and witness tampering.
The witness tampering charge stemmed from a scheme in which Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, William Schulder—who was cooperating with federal investigators—and secretly record the encounter. Kushner then mailed the tape to his own sister.
He served 14 months in prison and was pardoned by President Trump in December 2020. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who prosecuted Kushner as U.S. Attorney, called the crimes “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted.”
Senator Booker defended his vote, citing Kushner’s work on the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill.
“I have passionate differences and disagreements with Charlie Kushner, but I supported his confirmation because he has been unrelenting in reforming our criminal justice system and has substantively helped achieve the liberation of thousands of people from unjust incarceration,” Booker said.
However, McCormick and other critics point to a long-standing financial and political relationship between Booker and Kushner that they believe influenced the vote. Kushner was an early donor to Booker’s first mayoral campaign in 2002 and is one of more than four dozen billionaires who have contributed to Booker’s campaigns, which have raised nearly $100 million over his career.
“Cory Booker and the convicted felon go way back,” McCormick noted. “This isn’t about criminal justice reform; it’s about rewarding a wealthy donor and old friend.”
The newly surfaced FBI files add a disturbing layer to Kushner’s history.
While the documents are heavily redacted and the allegation of assault was never formally charged, they show the FBI pursued the lead, interviewing neighbors of the alleged victim in a Manhattan apartment building.
One neighbor told agents that if such an altercation had occurred, she would have likely heard it “due to the sound properties of the walls.” The case was eventually closed without further action.
At his confirmation hearing, Kushner acknowledged his past crimes. “I don’t sit here before you today and tell you I’m a perfect person. I am not,” he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “I made a very, very, very serious mistake, and I paid a very heavy price for that mistake.”
For McCormick and other progressives, that price was erased by a presidential pardon, and the ambassadorship represents a reward for loyalty, not a merit-based appointment.
The controversy underscores the deepening rift within the Democratic Party between its establishment wing, represented by figures like Booker, and its progressive base, which is increasingly vocal in demanding stricter accountability for alliances with wealthy donors and Trump-world figures.
“Sending a man with this record to represent our nation in France is an embarrassment,” McCormick said. “And Senator Booker’s complicity in making it happen is a profound disappointment.”
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