CRIME/JARED KUSHNER/LEGISLATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The day after President Trump announced his support for a bipartisan criminal justice overhaul bill in the Roosevelt Room, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, arrived in the Oval Office to give him a dose of political reality. He was not going to bring the bill to the Senate floor until next year, Mr. McConnell told the president…The bill’s advocates say Mr. Kushner’s efforts were part of the reason Mr. McConnell reversed course, announcing that the Senate would vote on the bill next week. But even more important was his ability, over a course of years, to make Mr. Trump comfortable with the need for criminal justice overhaul in the first place…But for Mr. Kushner, it was a rare success after perhaps the most difficult period he has faced as a member of the Trump family and as a high-ranking official in the Trump White House. His close relationship with Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, whom he has defended even after intelligence agencies concluded that the prince ordered the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist, has generated bitter criticism from even Republicans.”
–Annie Karni, “For Kushner, Criminal Justice Has Been a Personal Issue and a Rare Victory,” The New York Times online, December 14, 2018