Republicans appear to have turned on Jared Kushner, former President Donald Trump's son-in-law, over a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia that his company received six months after Trump left the White House.
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, raised the issue during remarks in New Hampshire on Wednesday and compared Kushner to Hunter Biden.
Republicans in the House of Representatives have been probing Hunter Biden's dealings as part of an investigation into allegations that his father, President Joe Biden, was involved in son's business dealings.
The White House has repeatedly denied that the president had any involvement with his son's business affairs.
Speaking in Salem, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, Christie drew attention to the $2 billion Saudi investment in Kushner's firm, Affinity Partners.
Kushner served as a senior White House adviser during the Trump administration, who was closely involved with the administration's Middle East policy.
"Why would you send Jared Kushner to the Middle East when you have Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo as secretaries of state? Two incredibly accomplished men," Christie said.
"You send him?" Christie said, adding: "Why? We found out the answer six months after he left office: $2 billion from the Saudis to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, $2 billion, and because he did all this and more with his family. He's normalizing this conduct."
"And now we have another president who's doing exactly the same thing. And allowing Hunter Biden to run roughshod. Making money from foreign governments is selling access to Joe Biden," Christie said.
"I'm going to end this family grift that's going on. We are not a third-world republic. We are the United States of America. And it's time for Donald Trump's family to get off the public dole and go back to New York where they belong," he added.
Newsweek has reached out to Affinity Partners via its website for comment.
Christie is a former Trump ally who has become highly critical of the former president. While serving as a U.S. attorney, Christie prosecuted Kushner's father, Charles Kushner, who pled guilty to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations. In December, 2020, Trump pardoned Kushner.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Representative James Comer - a Republican who has been leading the congressional probe into Hunter Biden - responded to Christie's comments during a CNN interview on Thursday.
"I have been vocal that I think that what Kushner did crossed the line of ethics," Comer told CNN's The Lead with host Jake Tapper.
"But what Christie said, it happened after he left office. Still no excuse, Jake, but it happened after he left office. And Jared Kushner actually has a legitimate business," he added.
Comer went on: "This money from the Bidens happened while Joe Biden was vice president, while he was flying to those countries. He – look, days after he left Romania, his family started receiving wires from a corrupt Romanian foreign national, days, Jake, like four days after he left, including his granddaughter. What's his granddaughter doing getting a wire from a Romanian foreign national?"
Affinity Partners, Kushner's firm, received a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund six months after Trump left office, despite concerns about the deal from a Saudi Public Investment Fund review panel, according to meeting minutes seen by The New York Times.
The board of the sovereign wealth fund, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, overruled those concerns.
House Republicans are continuing to investigate President Biden, and some in the GOP described bank records released this week as a "smoking gun" that provide evidence of corruption by the president.
Democrats noted that much of the information had already been made public and that it didn't show Biden had been involved with his son's business dealings.