Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at background briefing.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with the chair of the Senate Finance Committee asking Jared Kushner for more details

about their $2 billion investment in his new company from Saudi Arabia's MBS,

at a time when there is much focus on Hunter Biden's comparatively paltry overseas business deals, which will be highlighted

by Republicans in September when the President's son goes on trial again. Joining us to discuss

the pernicious influence of foreign funding and foreign influence on our politics is Casey

Michelle, the director of the Combating kleptocracy program at the Human Rights

Foundation, as well as a writer, analysts, and investigative journalists working on topics

ranging from kleptocracy, illicit finance, dark money, foreign lobbying, and foreign

interference to the legacies of Russian and Soviet colonialism. He's the author of American kleptocracy,

how the US created the world's greatest money laundering scheme in history,

and foreign agents,

how American lobbyists and lawmakers threatened democracy around the world out soon.

We'll discuss his article at CNN.

There should be sunlight about the kinds of deals Jared Kushner and Hutter Biden struck overseas.

Then we'll examine the deal the Biden administration is doggedly pursuing

in which Saudi Arabia would extend full diplomatic relations to Israel

in exchange for the United States providing Saudi Arabia a security guarantee,

assistance in developing a nuclear program, and more unrestricted arms sales.

Joining us is Paul Pillar, who served for 30 years as an analyst at the CIA,

in which his last position was National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia.

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