An Annotated Copy of the FBI Memo Recapping Charles Kushner's Scheme to Hire a Prostitute to Seduce His Brother-in-Law and Send a Secretly-Recorded Video "That Captures Them Having Sex" to His Sister

Part I: President Trump's nominee to be US ambassador to France told family members about the blackmail plot as it was unfolding and they all had a good laugh.

To help keep expenses down, the crooked cop Kushner hired to implement the honeypot rented two rooms — one for the happy couple and the second next door for his brother, a private investigator, who directed the sex video— at what was and arguably remains the worst hotel on Route 22 near Bridgewater, New Jersey. Photo of the Red Bull Motor Inn from Tripadvisor’s website.

[Note: Part II of this two-part series, “What did Jared know and when did he know it?” will be published tomorrow morning.]

Tomorrow marks the 21st anniversary of billionaire Charles Kushner’s masterstroke scheme to blackmail a loose-lipped executive at his flagship real estate company by paying a prostitute-pretending-to-be-an-ordinary-blonde-bombshell-with- an-insatiable-sexual-appetite-and-car-trouble to walk into the New Jersey diner where he was having breakfast and cadge a ride from him to a dingy nearby roadside motel where she was supposedly staying while in town for a job interview, and persuade the horny corporate honcho to come up to her room, where he was recorded receiving a blow job in flagrante delicto by a secret camera installed in the room at the direction of a crooked cop who had also been retained for the occasion.

It sounds crazy, but the idea at the heart of the December 5, 2003 plot was pure genius, at least as Kushner drew it up on paper. After screening the sex tape and having it edited to ensure the best possible visual and audio effects, just like any proud auteur would do, the real estate tycoon had a private investigator — the crooked cop’s brother, who was also on payroll — mail it anonymously to the home of the executive and his wife, who he had discovered were both providing evidence to a federal grand jury investigating him for tax evasion and making illegal political campaign contributions, which is what necessitated the honeypot trap in the first place.

The package, which included still photos from the recording, was timed to arrive the day the couple were hosting a big family bash. There was no note but the message could not have been clearer: unless they immediately stopped snitching to law enforcement, the sex tape would soon be available for public screening.

Sadly, all of this imaginative, ambitious planning went for naught. The frightened executive and his wife knew Kushner well — it’s probably worth mentioning here that they were his brother-in-law and sister — and considered him to be an unhinged sociopath who was entirely capable of burning their house down in the middle of the night as they were peacefully asleep in their beds if they snubbed his generous offer. Hence, they turned the video over to the FBI, which quickly unraveled the scheme.

In 2005, Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to 15 counts related to the original charges and one additional count for the honeypot. It was an extremely short period considering that then-US Attorney for New Jersey Chris Christie later labeled “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he ever prosecuted, and Kushner only ended up being confined for 14 months — at a Club Fed on the grounds of an Air Force base in Alabama where numerous political and corporate criminals before and since have served time in relative comfort, playing pool, chilling in the music room, and learning a new hobby in the arts & craft center — and spent another few months before his full release at a halfway house he was allowed into because he claimed he was an alcoholic.

The whole story has a happy ending, though. In December of 2020, outgoing President Donald Trump granted him a full and unconditional pardon, in a review process that was effectively directed by Jared Kushner, his son and the president’s son-in-law via his marriage to Ivanka Trump as well as his senior advisor. The deal got even sweeter last Saturday, when incoming President Donald Trump nominated Kushner to be US Ambassador to France.

It probably wasn’t a coincidence that outgoing President Joe Biden choose to announce the following day that he was pardoning his son Hunter on gun and tax charges after repeatedly promising he wouldn’t. It all just goes to show the rich truly are different in many ways, for example, enjoying legal immunity for lawbreaking of the type that would result in those of us in the lower 99 percent of the population being sent away for a long stretch in the pen.

Last year, Kushner donated $1 million to the president’s Make America Great Again Inc. Super PAC, which is the standard path to being awarded a plum overseas diplomatic post. However, Trump cited Kushner’s track record as “a tremendous dealmaker” in packing him off to Paris, where, assuming he’s confirmed by the Senate, he’ll be shacked up at the American Ambassador’s Residence at 41 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, the former home of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, scion of the famous family of bankers, which Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring used as an Air Force officers’ club during the Nazi occupation of France before it was bought by the US government in 1948, two years after Göring’s untimely, though not unexpected, demise at Nuremberg.

The American Ambassador’s Residence at 41 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Kushner’s new Paris digs and the old one for many prominent former residents, including banker Baron Edmond de Rothschild and Beer Hall Putsch veteran, Gestapo founder, and Luftwaffe Commander Hermann Göring, born 1893, Rosenheim, German Empire, died 1946, Nuremberg, Germany. Photo from the website of the US embassy in Paris.

Kushner’s ability to successfully negotiate deals that bring people together even under the most adverse circumstances is certainly attested to by the blackmail plot he concocted and directed two decades back. To pay tribute to Kushner’s spectacular scheming in days of yore and wish him godspeed on his upcoming journey to France, I’m reproducing the original, lightly edited statement submitted in court in July of 2004 by an FBI investigator that laid out the honeypot from start to finish, and annotating it to provide additional clarity and insight into the events that transpired.

That will include addressing the possibility — which upon review of the available evidence I would call the near certainty — that young Jared Kushner, who had just graduated from Harvard at the time his father commenced with the plan, wasn’t entirely in the dark about what was in the works. He certainly dismissed the seriousness of the plan afterwards and put a knife in Christie’s back at every opportunity over the proceeding years for taking a trifling “family matter”and making a federal case out of it.

I. The Cast of Characters

Cooperating Witness 1 (CW1): Esther Schulder, Charles Kushner’s sister.

Cooperating Witness 2 (CW2): Billy Schulder, Esther’s husband.

Cooperating Witness 3 (CW3): Bob Yontef, Kushner’s accountant.

Co-Conspirator A (CCA): Jimmy O'Toole, an East Orange, New Jersey police captain who Kushner paid to implement the plot and make his dream a reality.

Co-Conspirator B (CCB): Tommy O’Toole, Jimmy’s brother and a private investigator in upstate New York.

Woman 1 (W1): Susannah, a high-end New York City escort who Kushner hired to set up Billy Schulder.

Woman 2 (W2): Susannah’s friend and professional colleague.

“Time to Eat? Red Bull? You can’t make these names up!” Christie exclaimed in his memoir. Photo from the diner’s website.

II. The Plot

I, Thomas A. Marakovits, a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, having conducted an investigation, including interviewing Cooperating Witnesses 1, 2 and 3, Co-Conspirators A and B, W-1 and W-2 and reviewing corroborating documents obtained through grand jury subpoena and through other sources, and having discussed this matter with other law enforcement officers, have knowledge of the following facts:

In or about August 2003, defendant CHARLES KUSHNER told CCA¹ that he wanted him to hire a woman to seduce CW2² and capture the woman and CW2 having sex on videotape. Defendant CHARLES KUSHNER provided CCA with a photograph of CW2 and personal and identifying information, including New Jersey work and residential addresses. Defendant CHARLES KUSHNER paid CCA approximately $25,000 in cash as compensation for CCA and CCB³ for their roles in coordinating the scheme and to cover expenses.

The scheme stalled until due to CCA’s and CCB’s inability to recruit a woman who was willing to be paid to seduce and have sex with CW2 on videotape. In or about November 2003, in New York City, defendant CHARLES KUSHNER personally recruited a woman (“W1") known by defendant CHARLES KUSHNER to be a call girl⁴ to seduce and have sex with CW2 on videotape. Defendant told W1 that he would pay her approximately $7,000 to $10,000 if she would have sex with CW2 on videotape.

In or about November 2003, at defendant CHARLES KUSHNER’s office building in Florham Park, New Jersey, defendant provided CCA with the telephone number of W1 and informed CCA that W1 was willing to take part in the planned seduction and videotaping of CW2 in return for money.

On or about December 3, 2003, W1 traveled from New York City to meet CCA and CCB at a motel in Bridgewater, New Jersey.⁵ CCA instructed W1 that she was to attempt to lure CW2 back to the motel by telling CW2 that her car had broken down. An attempt to introduce W1 to CW2 on this date failed.

On or about December 4, 2003, W1 traveled from New York City to Bridgewater, New Jersey to meet CCB at the same motel. Subsequently, CCB and W1 traveled to a nearby diner where CW2 had been surveilled by CCA.⁶

When CW2 exited the diner, he was approached by W1 who convinced CW2 to give her a ride back to her motel by claiming that her car had broken down. After CW2 and W1 arrived at the motel, W1 invited CW2 into her room. CW2 declined but exchanged telephone numbers with W1.⁷

On or about December 5, 2003, W1 again traveled from NewYork City to Bridgewater, New Jersey in an attempt to seduce and videotape CW2. For this purpose, CCB had installed a hidden video camera in W1's motel room.⁸

After a telephone conversation between W1 and CW2, CW2 arrived at W1's motel room. Subsequently, W1 and CW2 had sexual relations which were recorded by the hidden camera installed by CCB.⁹

For her role in the seduction and videotaping of CW2, W1 was paid approximately $7,000 to $10,000 in cash by CCA and CCB. The remainder of the $25,000 in cash originally paid to CCA by defendant CHARLES KUSHNER was divided between CCA and CCB.

On or about December 5, 2003, CCB delivered the videotape of CW2 and W1 having sexual relations to defendant CHARLES KUSHNER at his office building in Florham Park, New Jersey. In a conference room with an associate present, defendant CHARLES KUSHNER viewed the videotape and expressed satisfaction with it to CCB.¹⁰

Subsequently, defendant CHARLES KUSHNER instructed CCA and CCB that he wanted copies of the videotape made — including a version in which W1's face was pixelled out — and still photographs created from the videotape. On a later visit, CCA and CCB delivered copies of the videotape and still photographs to defendant CHARLES KUSHNER at his office.

Shortly after the videotaping of CW2, defendant CHARLES KUSHNER instructed CCA that he wanted to make a similar videotape of CW3 having sex with a woman. Defendant CHARLES KUSHNER advanced to CCA approximately $10,000 to $12,000 in cash for the project and expenses. Subsequently, defendant CHARLES KUSHNER provided CCA with personal and identifying information regarding CW3.¹¹

Shortly thereafter, CCB contacted a woman (“W2") referred to him by W1 who would be interested in seducing and videotaping CW3 for money. In or about mid-December 2003, under the direction of CCA and CCB, W2 approached CW3 in the parking lot of an office building.¹²

As instructed, W2 asked CW3 if he would give her a ride to her motel as her car had broken down. CW3 agreed to drive W2 to her motel. When CW3 and W2 arrived at the motel in Bridgewater, New Jersey, W2 asked CW3 if he would like to come into her motel room for a drink. CW3 declined and drove away.¹³

CCA and CCB paid W2 approximately $2,000 for her effort to lure CW3 to her motel room and videotape a sex act with him. CCA and CCB divided the remainder of the money received from defendant CHARLES KUSHNER between themselves. CCA informed defendant CHARLES KUSHNER that the attempt to videotape CW3 having sex with a female was unsuccessful.

On or about May 7, 2004, certain associates of defendant CHARLES KUSHNER received letters from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey indicating that they were targets of a federal grand jury investigation. On or about May 9, 2004, defendant CHARLES KUSHNER met CCA and instructed him that he wanted CCB to mail the videotape and still photographs of CW2 having sex with W1 to CW2's spouse, CW1, and to the children of CW1 and CW2.¹⁴

Defendant CHARLES KUSHNER further instructed that he wanted the videotape mailed from Canada and that he wanted it to arrive at CW1 and CW2's house immediately prior to a family party which was scheduled for the following weekend.

On or about that same day, CCA communicated defendant CHARLES KUSHNER’s instructions about mailing the videotape and still photographs to CCB. On or about May 10, 2004, CCB drove to a town in upstate NewYork, and mailed the still photographs and videotape in an envelope addressed to CW1 in Essex County, New Jersey.

A few days later, the envelope containing the videotape and still pictures of CW2 having sex with W1 arrived at the home of CW1 and CW2 in Essex County, New Jersey. CW1 opened the envelope and discovered its contents. CW1 and CW2 later turned the envelope and its contents over to federal law enforcement agents.¹⁵

1. The nature of Kushner’s relationship with CCA — Police Captain Jimmy O’Toole — isn’t fully known, but it’s clear he knew him well, as would be expected given the sensitive nature of the assignment he asked him to handle. Kushner was aware, for example, that O’Toole was getting ready to retire so he’d be interested in freelance work, and he hinted when he approached him there might be more of it down the road. It’s also obvious O’Toole had a few skeletons in the closet that Kushner was aware of that made him think he was the right man for the job. Whether this was one of the skeletons or not, in October of 2004, a women whose attorney described her as simple-minded, a former drug user, and an unemployed single mother of two children filed a federal civil lawsuit that accused the East Orange police chief and seven officers, including O’Toole, of being “forced to perform sexual acts” in exchange for not being charged with “phony or false charges.” Her allegations were never proven but three years later, the town of East Orange paid the woman $25,000 to settle the case, without admitting wrongdoing by any of its officials. It was one of three lawsuits against the town’s police department that were settled around the same time. O’Toole announced he planned to take early retirement in June of 2004 and officially resigne from the force in December of 2004, two months after the lawsuit was filed.

2. Kushner had never liked CW2 — Billy Schulder, his sister’s husband — but he also knew a lot about what made him tick, which led to the specific type of trap he set up to ensnare him. In his memoir “Let Me Finish: Trump, the Kushners, Bannon, New Jersey, and the Power of In-Your-Face Politics,” Christie said the first thing he asked CW1 — Schulder’s wife Esther — after the couple brought him an envelope with the sex tape why she was sure her brother was responsible for it. Esther responded instantly, Christie wrote. “‘Charlie plays on people’s weaknesses. Billy has a weakness.’ She patted her husband’s shoulder and nodded at the envelope. ‘Charlie played on it’.”

3. CCB — Tommy O’Toole, Jimmy’s brother, currently runs Emerald Priority Investigations in Utica, New York, just as he did back then. An online business profile says the firm’s clients include companies in the Waste Management sector, which has traditionally been a great line of work for New Jersey- and New York-area goombahs; as connoisseurs of “The Sopranos” may recall, Tony was a longtime consultant to Barone Sanitation. O’Toole received a solid endorsement at his LinkedIn page from a member of the Special Investigation Unit that investigates suspected fraud for an insurance company. “He has been very successful with covert surveillance,” the person wrote. “I would highly recommend him!

4. W1 — nom de guerre: Susannah — was a young woman from Eastern Europe who worked for an elite escort service in Manhattan and was described in tabloid accounts as “leggy,” “slender,” “stunning” and, of course, “a blonde bombshell.” Susannah was “known by defendant CHARLES KUSHNER to be a call girl” because he’d been one of her johns for years. He visited her and other prostitutes during regular catting forays into New York City, when he used the stage name of John Hess, which is what Susannah believed his real name was before she became part of the sex sting investigation.

5. The Red Bull Motor Inn off US Route 22. “This place was complete trash,” a Yelp reviewer named Alison wrote of a one-night stay at the property in 2004, a year after Billy Schulder spent a few brief, intense moments at the property with Susannah. “The room was filthy, there were bugs in it, and the sheets were permanently stained…I ended up sleeping on top of the comforter in full clothes because I was so afraid to get in the sheets.”

6. The Time to Eat Diner. Billy Schulder was there for breakfast or lunch almost every day, which was probably part of the briefing packet Kushner gave Jimmy O’Toole. The diner was about a 7-minute drive from the Red Bull Motor Inn.

7. This scene was described by Gabriel Sherman in a 2009 article in New York. Schulder was ordering lunch at a local diner in Bridgewater, New Jersey, when a leggy blonde with a revealing suit pulled up,” he wrote. “She said she was in town interviewing for a job and her car had broken down. Schulder gave her a lift back to the motel, declining her invitation but taking her phone number.” Christie provided additional details in his book: When Bill and the woman arrived at the motel, he said, she asked if he’d like to come up to her room. No, he answered. He had to get going. “Well,” he recalled her saying, “I’m going to need a ride to the car dealership tomorrow morning. I don’t know anybody out here. If you’re around, do you think you could give me a ride to pick up my car?” Bill said he gave a noncommittal answer: “I’m not sure if I’ll be here or not.” But they did exchange phone numbers. “If you really need a ride,” he told her as she got out of the car, “you can give me a call.”

8. According to court records, Tommy O’Toole installed the camera in a digital alarm clock perched atop a bedside table. He was checked into the room next door to make sure no Schulder didn’t drop dead of a heart attack or some another type of emergency didn’t arise after he silently mouthed the words “Lights, camera, action” after the target dropped his pants and flopped on the bed with Susannah.

9. The mornin after Billy Schulder declined Susannah’s first offer, she called him to ask for a ride. “Bill drove back to the Red Bull Inn,” Christie wrote in his memoir. “This time, he said yes when she invited him to her room, where the two of them had sex.”

10. Kushner and his associate, Richard Stadtmauer, the brother of his wife Seryl, didn’t merely express satisfaction with Tommy O’Toole’s handiwork, they were exultant. They watched the raw video in a conference room after taping newspapers over the windows and laughed uproariously when the footage showed Susannah giving Schulder the blow job, Christie recounted in his memoir.

11. CW3 — Robert Yontef — was a former accountant at Kushner’s real estate company who his boss believed was also passing information to the FBI. When Jimmy O’Toole went to Kushner’s home to discuss how to set up Yontef, he was shocked that his wife Seryl came into the room with him. “I assume everyone in the room knows about this?” O’Toole reportedly asked.

12. Little is known about W2 other than she was a professional colleague of Susannah, who recommended her for the job.

13. Yontef didn’t know when W2 approached him in the parking lot that it was part of a plot. “He thought it was funny,” his lawyer said later. “He called his wife [to tell her] on his way home.”

14. Kushner’s request that the sex tape be sent to Billy and Esther’s children — his nieces and nephews — was one of the things that Christie and many others involved in the case found most repellent. Observers were also struck that Jimmy O’Toole, the hardened, corrupt cop, found the request a moral bridge too far and persuaded Kushner to drop the idea. Tommy O’Toole and Susannah also exhibited far higher ethical standards than Kushner. On the afternoon that the two ran the tag team that landed the Billy Schulder sex tape, “Jimmy called the girl to make sure she got back to the city safely,” Sherman wrote in New York. article. “Are you okay?” he asked. “I feel dirty.” “Yeah,” she said, “I don’t feel good either.”

15. From Christie’s memoir: Inside the envelope was an X-rated video, starring Bill. “It came just as we were getting ready for my son Jacob’s engagement party,” Esther explained. She said the envelope also included several glossy photos of her husband and this woman in poses that could certainly be described as compromising. “The envelope had no return address,” Esther added. “But I knew right away who it came from.”