The Netherlands‘ Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) allegedly gained access to the mobile phone of Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and a key negotiator in efforts to resolve the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran, according to a new book by American investigative journalist Matthew Cole.

An extract published by Vanity Fair claims that Dutch intelligence began monitoring Kushner’s phone in 2018 with the assistance of a Russian defector, a hacker who had previously worked for Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU.

The Dubai bank account and alleged money transfers

According to Cole, a source told him that Dutch intelligence discovered Kushner was accessing a bank account in the United Arab Emirates.

“The strange thing, according to the source, was that the money in the account, hundreds of millions of dollars, came from a bank in Azerbaijan,” Cole writes.

More significantly, the journalist alleges that Kushner appeared to have transferred substantial sums from the Dubai account to several individuals, including a warlord, a mercenary and a man who had previously worked as a hit man.

The funds were allegedly provided by the Saudi and Emirati royal families to advance political and diplomatic objectives in the Middle East.

“In late spring 2020, a source I knew to be reliable called me with a story,” writes Matthew Cole. “The Dutch government had hacked into Jared Kushner’s phone and monitored him as he accessed a Dubai-based bank account. What was odd, the source said, was that the money in the account—hundreds of millions of dollars—had come from a bank in Azerbaijan. Most importantly, Kushner appeared to have transferred significant amounts of money from the Dubai account to other individuals, including a warlord, a mercenary and a one-time hit man. The story sounded preposterous, I told my source. And yet. Six months later, I found myself speaking with someone else about the UAE government and their use of mercenaries in conflicts around the Middle East and Africa when I asked, on a whim, whether they knew anything about Kushner and bank transfers from a UAE account. My acquaintance grew quiet. Then they replied, ‘Yes.’” Kushner’s lawyer denied the bank account existed. Read an exclusive excerpt from Cole’s book, ‘Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East’: https://t.co/PRoWgY5pSo

— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) October 22, 2026

The alleged Gaza plan and normalisation of relations with Israel

A source cited in the book claimed that Kushner had been pursuing an alternative approach to achieving his diplomatic objectives.

As part of this alleged arrangement, Kushner reportedly promised the president of the United Arab Emirates that he would promote Emirati interests with Trump in exchange for financial contributions to the fund.

The broader objective was to secure a significant diplomatic breakthrough over the war in Gaza, paving the way for normalisation of relations with Israel.

Such a development would have allowed Trump to maintain his relationship with Israel without suffering damage to his political standing.

How a Russian intelligence operative allegedly gave the Dutch access to Kushner’s phone

According to Cole, the MIVD obtained access to Kushner’s phone through a former operative of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency.

In 2017, Dutch intelligence reportedly learnt that the operative was travelling to the United Kingdom on an espionage mission and asked British authorities to arrest him.

The MIVD subsequently presented the Russian operative with two options: cooperate with the Dutch government as an informant or face the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence in Britain for espionage.

The Russian chose to defect, providing Dutch intelligence with access to one of the GRU’s most sensitive systems.

While examining the system, MIVD officers allegedly discovered screenshots from Kushner’s iPhone stored on a server in the Russian city of Rostov.

That discovery reportedly enabled the Dutch agency to establish direct access to his phone in early 2018, allowing intelligence officers to view its screen whenever Kushner used the device.

The extract published by Vanity Fair does not specify how long the MIVD retained access to his phone.

Asked about the allegations by Dutch public broadcaster NOS, the MIVD said it did not comment on its operational methods, the scope of the intelligence it held or its sources.

Jared Kushner categorically denies the allegations

Kushner rejected all the accusations in a post on X, describing the author’s claims as entirely absurd and insisting that the events described had never taken place.

He also argued that no evidence had been provided to substantiate the allegations.

“No bank statements, wire transfer receipts, account numbers, transaction dates or any other verifiable evidence were presented to support these extraordinarily serious accusations,” Kushner wrote.

The claims in Cole’s book therefore remain allegations attributed to the author’s sources. The published extract provides no independently verifiable documentation establishing that the alleged financial transactions took place.

.@VanityFair posted an excerpt from a book containing outrageous and categorically false allegations. The allegations made by this author are completely insane and never happened. We denied every one of these claims on the record, yet the author failed to provide a single shred of evidence to substantiate any of them. No bank statements, wire transfer records, account numbers, transaction dates, or other verifiable details were provided to support these extraordinary accusations. During the period in question, I was one of the most scrutinized people in the world, subjected to intense media coverage, multiple congressional investigations, and a special counsel investigation. I voluntarily cooperated with these investigations, providing over 30 hours of testimony. None of these allegations ever surfaced, because none of these events ever happened. These are outrageous fabrications being presented as investigative journalism. This is not journalism. It is a mixture of fantasy, fiction, and advocacy, written by someone who is either deeply disturbed or acting with sinister intent.

— Jared Kushner (@jaredkushner) October 22, 2026