Vantage CEO Neil Rubler and Jared Kushner (Credit: Getty Images)
When he was running the New York Observer, Jared Kushner in 2012 personally ordered articles critical of his friends removed from the newspaper’s website, according to a new report.
One of the articles was a 2010 story about regarding a settlement between then-New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Vantage Properties over allegations that the company had illegally pushed out rent stabilized tenants, BuzzFeed News reported.
Kushner also ordered a staffer to remove an article about Vantage CEO Neil Rubler that appears to be about him landing on a “10 worst landlords” list. (Vantage later changed its name to Candlebrook Properties.)
Kushner stepped down as publisher of the Observer to join the Trump Administration in Washington, D.C., and transferred his ownership in the paper to a family trust. Representatives for the White House did not respond to BuzzFeed’s requests for comment.
Kushner also ordered staff at the newspaper to remove a 2012 story about NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s purchase of a $6.75 million apartment at the Beresford on the Upper West Side. Silver and Kushner are friends, according to Buzzfeed.
Austin Smith, a software employee who worked for Observer Media Group, wrote on the website Hacker News about an incident when Kushner requested stories deleted.
“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.
Kushner also ordered a reporter at the Observer to write a hit piece on rival Richard Mack, though no story was ever published.
Kushner and his newspaper came under criticism in 2014 when the Observer published a story critical of then-Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who at the time was going after Trump and his Trump University. [BuzzFeed] – Rich Bockmann
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