Kushner earns praise for support of criminal justice reform

WASHINGTON: It was the first time many liberal advocates had set foot inside President Donald Trump’s White House.

And they came at the invitation of presidential son- in- law Jared Kushner – a top White House adviser whom many liberal and goodgovernment groups have criticised, questioning his lack of experience in government, potential conflicts of interest and cosy relationship with foreign leaders.

But in White House conference rooms and lobbying trips to Capitol Hill, Kushner worked with advocates, legislators and others on both sides of the aisle to try to craft a deal to make the nation’s criminal justice system fairer.

Now Kushner, the likely subject of new investigations when Democrats take control of the House next year, is getting credit for helping to spearhead what could be the first major bipartisan legislative success of the Trump era: a first-ina-generation criminal justice over- haul that passed the Senate Tuesday and is expected to pass the House later this week.

“I don’t think this would have happened without him,” said Sen Corey Booker of New Jersey, a potential 2020 Democratic presidential contender, adding that the Bill would have “a profound effect on thousands of families who have been suffering as a result of this broken system.”

Inimai Chettiar, director of the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, who attended multiple meetings at the White House and lobbied with Kushner on the Hill, said that while the centre’s policies are generally “very oppositional” to the Trump agenda, criminal justice offered a rare opportunity for cooperation.

Kushner “understands why this is a very important issue and the effect that it could have,” she said.

For Kushner, the criminal justice issue has long been deeply personal.

Kushner was a law and business school student in the mid-2000s when his father was sentenced to federal prison on charges of tax evasion, witness tampering and illegal campaign donations.

“When you’re on the other side of the system, you feel so helpless,” Kushner said in a recent interview.

“I felt like, I was on this side of the system, so how can I try to do whatever I can do to try to be helpful to the people who are going through it” and deserve a second chance. —