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US Vice President JD Vance has dismissed a media report as "completely bogus", which alleged that senior White House advisers Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff sought to profit financially from their roles in US-Iran negotiations, saying he never received the alleged private message from Iran.
In a post on X, responding to a media report on Thursday (local time), Vance said, "This is completely bogus. I never received a message like this." https://x.com/JDVance/status/2077896255666000073 "If I had, I would have said: Jared and Steve are trusted members of the president's team and very dear friends. No one has done more than the two of them to work towards peace and prosperity in the region. The idea they're trading on insider information is absurd," he added in the post. Vance also said, "I see a lot of BS flying around and I normally just ignore it. But Steve and Jared are good dudes and I'm honored to work with them." The remarks came in response to an attached media report to the post that alleged Iran had calculated "USD 9 billion" in profits from "market manipulation" by "individuals close to President Donald Trump", mainly Kushner and Witkoff, and had formally requested "USD 4.5 billion" of that sum be allocated to Iran through intermediaries. The report claimed that the source of the news was a senior Iranian official's update to the 'Drop Site' news site. The report further alleged that Iran had privately warned Vance during negotiations in Switzerland that Kushner and Witkoff were "abusing" the negotiations, were "more interested in exploiting insider knowledge to profit in financial markets than reaching a deal," and that "the exchanged texts will ultimately become part of the historical record." Vance categorically denied ever receiving such a message and rejected the allegations, calling Kushner and Witkoff "trusted members" of President Trump's team who had worked toward "peace and prosperity in the region." This comes at the same time as the White House on Thursday (local time) confirmed that US President Donald Trump's long-time teleprompter operator is under a federal investigation over alleged insider trading on a prediction market platform, noting that the individual has been placed on unpaid administrative leave. Responding to a question during a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump was aware of the matter and described the allegations as "deeply unfortunate". "Obviously, I'm aware of the report. The President is too. I spoke with him about it. He believes it's deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace, and the individual who was cited in that report is complying with the CFTC but has been put on unpaid administrative leave. So there will be a teleprompter operator tonight, of course, but it will not be the one, unfortunately, in that story," Leavitt said. She added that the White House maintains strict ethical standards and said the decision to place the employee on leave was made by the President. "Well, the White House has extremely strict ethical guidelines with respect to issues like this, and as I just told you, this individual will no longer be here. He'll be on administrative leave without pay. The administrative leave is unpaid, to be very clear. That was a decision by the President, so I think that speaks for itself," Leavitt added. (ANI)
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