Jared Kushner, the U.S. president's son-in-law and senior adviser, was wooed by Saudi Arabia's controversial crown prince before Donald Trump took office, and the contacts continued in spite of the leader's links to the brutal murder of a journalist, the New York Times reported.
Kushner kept in touch with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with text messages and phone calls even after the White House chief of staff in 2017 sought to have National Security Council staffers oversee the interactions, the paper reported, citing former U.S. officials and people briefed by the Saudi royal court. Officials in the State Department and Pentagon also sought to reign in Kushner's contacts, the Times said.
Prince Mohammed and Kushner have remained in contact even after Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. based Saudi journalist, was murdered by Saudi agents in Turkey in October, the paper said. The CIA has concluded that the prince, often known by the initials MBS, played a role in the killing.