Max Kennedy Jr., the 26-year-old grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, has identified himself as the whistleblower who tried to expose the shortcomings of Jared Kushner’s coronavirus task force in the early days of the pandemic. In an interview with TheNew Yorker, Kennedy said he signed a nondisclosure agreement when he joined the volunteer task force, but felt so disturbed by what he saw that he sent an anonymous complaint to Congress. “I just couldn’t sleep... I was so distressed and disturbed by what I’d seen,” he said. Kushner’s group was formed to get personal protective equipment, such as masks and gloves, to virus hot spots. Kennedy, who is, unsurprisingly, a Democrat, said he was happy to sign up because the group appeared to be apolitical, but he filed a complaint after its failures became impossible to ignore. Kennedy said: “If you see something that might be illegal, and cause thousands of civilian lives to be lost, a person has to speak out.” He added that, in the few times Kushner came to the office, he had “an air of self-importance.”
