France blocks US ambassador’s access to officials after he fails to attend meeting

Charles Kushner, father of president’s son-in-law Jared, had been summoned to explain US comments relating to death of far-right activist

Donald Trump’s envoy to Paris will not be permitted to carry out his diplomatic duties until he has explained his refusal to comply with a foreign ministry summons over US comments about the killing of a far-right activist, France’s top diplomat has said.

Charles Kushner “needs to be able to have this discussion with us, with [the foreign ministry], so that he can resume the normal exercise of his duties as ambassador in France”, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said on Tuesday.

Kushner, whose son Jared is married to the US president’s daughter Ivanka, did not show up for a meeting at the ministry at 7pm on Monday to which he had been summoned after the US embassy in Paris reposted state department comments about the case.

In response, the ministry said on Monday night it had requested that the US ambassador be denied direct access to French government ministers, although he would continue to be allowed to talk to foreign ministry officials.

Barrot suggested on Tuesday, however, that Kushner would now also be blocked from talking to government officials until he explained his refusal to respect what the minister called the “basic” rules of conduct and behaviour of foreign diplomats.

“When you have the honour of representing your country, the United States of America, in France as ambassador, you abide by the most basic customs of diplomacy and you respond to summonses from the foreign ministry,” he told France Info radio.

“I believe all French people share the same feeling,” Barrot added. “We do not accept that foreign countries can come and interfere in, then insert themselves into, our national political debate, whatever the circumstances.”

Barrot said the incident would “in no way affect the relationship between France and the United States”, which he said had “weathered other storms”, but would “naturally affect [Kushner’s] ability to carry out his mission in our country”.

The foreign minister said the conversation “needs to be had”, noting that Paris also wanted to raise the issue of US sanctions against European figures such as the French former European commissioner Thierry Breton, who have been barred from the US.

A foreign ministry official told Agence France-Presse later on Tuesday that the US ambassador had called Barrot, who had “reiterated the reasons that led to the summons”. It was not immediately clear whether Kushner’s diplomatic access had been restored.

France “cannot accept any form of interference or manipulation of its national public debate by authorities of a third country”, the minister reportedly told Kushner, who “took note and expressed his willingness not to interfere in our public debate”.

Diplomatic sources told French media that Kushner, a real-estate magnate with an estimated net worth of $3.2bn (£2.4bn), had cited personal commitments as his reason for not attending the Monday meeting, instead sending a senior embassy official.

The no-show was Kushner’s second since his appointment to the Paris embassy last May. He also failed to attend after a summons to the ministry in August, after writing an open letter to Emmanuel Macron criticising what he described as a lack of government action to tackle the “dramatic rise of antisemitism in France”.

Quentin Deranque, a far-right activist, died from head injuries after clashes between radical left and far-right supporters on the sidelines of a protest against a politician from the leftwing France Unbowed (LFI) party in Lyon on 12 February.

Six men suspected of involvement in Deranque’s death have been charged over the killing, and a parliamentary assistant to an LFI MP has been charged with complicity.

The US state department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism said it was monitoring the case, adding that “violent radical leftism” was on the rise and should be treated as a public safety threat.

“We expect to see the perpetrators of violence brought to justice,” it said. The US embassy in France posted a French translation of the comments.

Deranque’s killing has also caused a diplomatic feud between France and Italy, whose rightwing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, called the death “a wound for all of Europe”. Macron criticised her for speaking about French domestic affairs.

Barrot on Sunday denounced any attempts to exploit the killing. “We reject any instrumentalisation of this tragedy, which has plunged a French family into mourning, for political ends,” he said. “We have no lessons to learn, particularly on the issue of violence, from the international reactionary movement.”

The spat follows a row between the Belgian government and the US ambassador to Brussels, Bill White, who has demanded Belgium drop a “ridiculous” and “antisemitic” investigation into three Jewish men suspected of performing illegal circumcisions.

White called Belgium’s health minister “very rude” in a social media post. Belgium’s foreign minister, Maxime Prévot, said it was “false, offensive and unacceptable” to suggest Belgium was antisemitic, and accused White of violating diplomatic norms.

White has since announced that another Belgian socialist politician, Conner Rousseau, has been barred from the US.

In 2005, Charles Kushner pleaded guilty to 16 counts of tax evasion, making false statements and witness tampering – including hiring a sex worker to seduce his brother-in-law who was testifying against him.

He spent 14 months in prison before being pardoned by Trump in 2020. Three years later he donated $1m to Trump’s Make America Great Again Inc Super Pac.