Kushner was advising Saudi prince after Khashoggi’s murder
Senior US officials were worried. Since the early months of the Donald Trump presidency, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, had been having private conversations with Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the favourite son of Saudi Arabia’s king.
Given Kushner’s clear lack of political experience, the private and informal exchanges could make him susceptible to Saudi manipulation, said former senior US officials.
Despite restrictions in place, Kushner, 37, and the Saudi crown prince, 33, kept chatting, according to three former White House officials and two others briefed by the Saudi royal court.
In fact, they said, the two men were on a first-name basis, calling each other “Jared” and “Mohammed” in text messages and phone calls.
The exchanges continued even after the October 2 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist who was ambushed and dismembered by Saudi agents at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, according to two former US officials and the two people briefed by the Saudis.
As the killing set off a firestorm around the world and US intelligence agencies concluded it was ordered by Bin Salman himself, Kushner became the prince’s most important defender inside the White House.
Kushner’s support for the crown prince is a striking demonstration of a singular bond that has helped draw Trump into an embrace of Saudi Arabia as one of his most important international allies.
But the ties between Kushner and the crown prince didn’t happen on their own.
The crown prince and his advisers, eager to enlist US support for his hawkish policies in the region and for his own consolidation of power, cultivated the relationship with Kushner for more than two years, according to documents, emails and text messages reviewed by The New York Times.