Reporter Of Piece On Kushner's Baltimore-Area Holdings Talks To C4

Thousands of Baltimore city and county residents deal with predatory practices and poor upkeep in their apartments and rowhouses without knowing that the person on the other end of their rent checks or liens or court judgments is one of President Donald Trump's closest advisers... and his son in law.

Alec MacGillis, a Baltimore resident and reporter for ProPublica, came in Friday to talk to C4 about the piece he reported for the nonprofit outlet and The New York Times Magazine.

"Virtually all of the people I spoke to at these complexes had no idea that their complex was owned by the son in law of the president," MacGillis said. "And they were stunned when they found out."

Kushner's JK2 Westminster LLC and other companies didn't always own so many properties in Baltimore and elsewhere. It was only about five years ago that they started buying the decades-old complexes from other owners. The Baltimore area has the largest share of these properties--13 in Baltimore County, two in Baltimore city, with most on the east side of Baltimore County.

"But what they did was after they bought these complexes, they went back into the files looking for people, old debt from prior years...going back and looking for anyone who they could find to go back for more money," MacGillis said.

He said that in some cases, these claw-backs were "completely unjustified," that people had left with permission way back when, but couldn't afford attorneys when chased down by the Kushner Companies. Many who live in the properties now are working class, often working at the Amazon fulfillment center or area casinos. Though many pay their own rent, there are some on Section 8 vouchers, and many others only just manage to scrape by, MacGillis said.

MacGillis recounted one story of a woman dying of pancreatic cancer when lawyers came after her. Her daughter, he said, left a lease she co-signed a month or two early.

"Years later, they come after the mom and the mom is literally at death's door," MacGillis said. "She was in hospice care and the family let the court know this...and they came after her anyway. Big judgment against her, she died two weeks after the judgment."

At the same time, he said, upkeep in these complexes has suffered in the past few years, with staff slow to respond to issues.

While Kushner has stepped away from the family real estate business since taking a role in the Trump administration, he still has kept 90 percent of his real estate holdings. MacGillis said it struck him that those most dumbfounded to learn who their landlord really was described themselves as Trump supporters.

"H\ere we are 40 miles from Washington, people have no idea their landlord is the very powerful son-in-law of the president," he said.

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