Jared Kushner's attorneys have formally put Vanity Fair and Condé Nast on notice over a book excerpt they call false and defamatory, demanding its immediate removal from every platform.
The Hill reported that lawyers representing Jared Kushner sent a letter to the magazine and its parent company after Vanity Fair published an excerpt from an investigative book making serious accusations against him.
Chad Mizelle, the former chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Justice, posted the notice on X and attached a copy of the letter. He said the claims charge Kushner with serious crimes and are defamatory on their face.
The excerpt comes from Matthew Cole's book "Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East." It alleges secret negotiations and millions of dollars in transfers tied to a hacked phone. Kushner’s team says the author has produced no bank statements, wire records, or account numbers to back those claims.
In his post, Mizelle made the legal position plain.
"We formally put Vanity Fair and Condé Nast on notice regarding the false and defamatory allegations published about our client, Jared Kushner."
The letter calls the accusations "as false as" they are "outrageous." It states that because the allegations "charge our client with committing serious crimes, they are defamatory per se." Counsel is demanding the immediate removal of the excerpt from the website and every other platform, plus preservation of all records related to its publication.
Mizelle went further on the lack of proof.
"Despite repeated requests, the author has failed to produce a single bank statement, wire transfer record, account number, or other verifiable evidence supporting these extraordinary accusations."
He also questioned the magazine’s process.
"We have seen no indication that Vanity Fair conducted any independent verification of these claims before publishing them."
And he pointed to outside scrutiny already underway.
"Serious questions are now being raised about the credibility of this reporting, including by independent journalists."
Kushner is President Trump’s son-in-law and has served as a U.S. special envoy throughout the second Trump term. In that role he has led peace talks involving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas, and has also worked on matters involving Ukraine and Russia.
The Vanity Fair excerpt is not the first recent media claim he has rejected. Earlier this month, CNN published a report alleging that Kushner’s private equity firm had ties to a company heavily involved in Israel’s military. Kushner called that coverage "a deeply misleading story."
The pattern is familiar. High-stakes diplomacy draws aggressive reporting. When the reporting arrives without documents, wire records, or independent checks, the target’s lawyers send a formal notice and demand the material come down. That is exactly what happened here.
The letter puts the publisher on legal notice. It does not, by itself, decide the truth of every detail in Cole’s book. It does force a choice: produce the bank records and wire transfers the lawyers have requested, or defend publishing extraordinary crime accusations without them.
Vanity Fair and Condé Nast have been asked to preserve records. The Hill has sought a full copy of the letter and comment. Absolute calendar dates for the excerpt and the notice were not provided in the initial account, only that the magazine piece appeared on a Thursday and the lawyers responded afterward.
For readers, the core dispute is simple. A major magazine ran claims of secret money transfers and serious crimes. The subject’s attorneys say no verifiable financial evidence has been shown, the magazine did not independently verify the claims, and the excerpt must be removed.
Media outlets that traffic in unproven criminal accusations against officials doing sensitive diplomatic work should expect exactly this response: a clean paper trail, a demand for proof, and a formal notice when the proof never appears.
