Book Says Dutch Spies Watched Jared Kushner’s Phone. He Denies It

A new book alleges that Dutch military intelligence watched Jared Kushner’s iPhone screen in 2018. Author Matthew Cole writes that the spies saw him log into a UAE bank account funded by Gulf royals. Kushner says the claims are “completely insane and never happened,” and no government or news outlet has confirmed them.

Vanity Fair published the excerpt from Princes and Thieves on October 22. The book comes out on October 27, according to IBTimes UK. The timing matters because Kushner is again a Trump envoy. With Steve Witkoff, he has worked on talks including the US-Iran nuclear negotiations.

Everything below describes what the book alleges. None of it has been proven.

How Cole says the Dutch got inside the phone

Cole writes that in late 2017 the Dutch military intelligence service, the MIVD, learned of a trip to Britain. The traveller was a hacker from Russia’s GRU military intelligence. According to the book, the Dutch gave him a choice: work for them, or face arrest by the British.

The operative then gave the Dutch access to a GRU server in Rostov, in southern Russia, Cole writes. On it, he says, they found screenshots of Kushner’s iPhone.

The book alleges that by early 2018 the MIVD had found its own way into Kushner’s iPhone X. Cole describes limited access. The Dutch could see his screen while he used the phone, but they couldn’t switch on the microphone or camera.

Through that window, Cole writes, the Dutch watched Kushner log into a UAE bank account. It had received hundreds of millions of dollars from a bank in Azerbaijan.

The accounts and the money Cole describes

Cole alleges that two Gulf rulers put “at least $2 billion into at least two bank accounts for Kushner.” They are the UAE’s Mohamed bin Zayed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The table sets out each one.

The excerpt’s own figures don’t quite reconcile. The two amounts Cole specifies add up to about $1.75 billion. That falls short of his “at least $2 billion” total, and the excerpt doesn’t explain the gap.

He argues that Kushner had to disclose any account he could sign for on his White House financial forms. A former Mueller prosecutor told Cole that bribery and foreign-agent laws could apply if Kushner promised anything in return. Kushner’s lawyer told Vanity Fair that he broke no laws.

What the book’s sourcing rests on

Read in full, the excerpt rests on people, not paper. Cole credits the original tip to “a source I knew to be reliable” who called in spring 2020. A second acquaintance later confirmed it with one word. Other key claims come from unnamed people, such as “a person briefed on the Beta account.”

The excerpt reproduces no screenshots, bank statements, account numbers or transfer dates. Cole doesn’t say he has seen the Dutch intelligence material. Four senior Trump officials he cites said only that they knew of no presidential approval for Kushner to use a foreign account.

The most important independent check so far points the other way. Dutch broadcaster NOS reported that its program Nieuwsuur spent years investigating the phone claim with the newspaper de Volkskrant. They spoke with several people directly involved and found no confirmation.

Barak Ravid, who covers Israel for Axios, has questioned the Beta account. He wrote on X that he doubted such an account was “even technically possible,” Mediaite reported.

Kushner’s denial, and the governments that have stayed quiet

Kushner answered on X on October 22. “The allegations made by this author are completely insane and never happened,” he wrote, according to Newsweek. He said Cole provided no bank statements, wire records, account numbers or transaction dates. He also said he gave investigators more than 30 hours of testimony, and “none of these allegations ever surfaced.”

His lawyer, Chad Mizelle, said the team sent Simon & Schuster a 13-page letter denying the claims before publication. He called the allegations “false and defamatory” and vowed legal action, The Daily Beast reported. Former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman told Cole the claims about him are “100% false.”

The White House backed Kushner. Principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly called the report “baseless smears,” Newsweek reported. President Trump, Kushner’s father-in-law, told reporters as he left the White House on Friday morning that it was “a totally false story,” according to Newsweek. House Oversight Committee Democrats said Kushner should answer the questions publicly.

The Dutch government has neither confirmed nor denied the story. The MIVD told NOS it doesn’t comment on its methods, knowledge or sources. A Defence Ministry spokesperson gave the Reformatorisch Dagblad the same answer.

We found no public response from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Russia or Israel in coverage published by Friday. Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, has issued no separate statement that we could find.

Why Gulf money and Kushner were already under scrutiny

Congress has examined Kushner’s Gulf money before. In June 2024, Senate Finance Committee chair Ron Wyden opened an investigation into Affinity Partners. The firm had reported that 99% of its money came from foreign sources, mainly Gulf sovereign wealth funds.

Wyden’s September 2024 follow-up letter said Affinity had collected up to $157 million in foreign fees. That included $87 million from the Saudi government. Affinity’s foreign-backed deals have also drawn protests abroad, including over its luxury project in Albania.

That record is documented, but it is a separate matter. Cole’s allegations cover 2017 and 2018, while Kushner was in government and before Affinity existed. The Senate letters explain why the book drew instant attention. They are not evidence for it.

What would turn allegation into fact is paper: bank records, intelligence files or a government on the record. None has appeared. The full book is due on October 27. Mizelle has promised legal action, but no lawsuit had been announced as of Friday.