washingtonpost.com – By Seung Min Kim Anne Gearan – Jared Kushner, the high-profile White House official and son-in-law of President Trump, is suddenly enjoying some renewed momentum on one of his prime projects — criminal-justice reform — while facing major tests on a potential Mideast peace deal and a trade agreement with Mexico. The senior White House adviser with the seemingly ever-expansive portfolio spoke in a rare public setting on Thursday, making a surprise appearance on a conference call with reporters to promote his criminal-justice plans on Capitol Hill. In brief remarks, Kushner stressed that the White House is “very close” to finalizing a criminal-justice-reform package in the Senate, where the push has long been mired in internal Republican Party divisions. The House passed a pared-down criminal-justice bill earlier this year with significant bipartisan margins.
“I think that the most important thing is that we continue to keep the pressure up and keep building the momentum that we built to date for these reforms,” Kushner said on the call hosted by FreedomWorks and the Justice Action Network, an advocacy group working on changes to sentencing and prisons.”
