Donald Trump Jr. friend had access to National Security Council officials
Life’s a beach when you are friends, and business partners, with the President’s son.
Gentry Beach, a Texas financier who raised money for the Trump campaign in 2016, has held meetings with National Security Council officials last spring to lessen sanctions on Venezuela that would allow American companies to do more business there.
The Trump Organization said at the time that the relationship between Beach and Trump Jr., who went to college together at University of Pennsylvania, was “strictly personal.”
But court records seen by the Associated Press show a more codified relationship including a business called Future Venture LLC registered by Beach in October that lists Trump Jr. as its president.
Concerns about the Trump sons and using the power of the presidency for personal gain surfaced around Beach during the inauguration, when a gala by the pro-hunting Opening Day Foundation offered meetings with the new President for $1 million “Bald Eagle” and $500,000 “Grizzly Bear” donors.
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Trump Jr. and Eric Trump denied involvement in the “camouflage and cufflinks” event, though Texas records obtained by the Daily News at the time showed that they were directors of the organization along with Beach.
Court documents from 2010 obtained by the AP show that the business relationship stretches back further, and that Trump Jr. testified that $200,000 in an oil well run by Beach’s father, who was convicted of bankruptcy fraud last month.
Trump Jr. also invested an undisclosed amount in a mining stock tied to Beach’s uncle and had a plan to buy a hunting preserve in Mexico with his friend and business partner.
It is not immediately clear how work for Future Ventures LLC, registered in Delaware, is divided between Beach and Trump Jr., though the Trump Organization told the AP that it was interested in technology investments.
It also denied that Trump Jr. was behind Beach’s meetings about Venezuela, which did not result in any sanction removal.
Beach said in a statement that he had not “used my longtime personal friendship with Donald Trump Jr.” to gain influence in the government.
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