Two Princes: Jared Kushner and Mohammed bin Salman

How complicit is the U.S. government in the murder of a Saudi journalist?

Greg Olear
14 min readOct 16, 2018
Photos: Stephane Cardinale/Corbis/Getty Images (left); Mark Wilson/Getty Images (right)

A year ago this month, Jared Kushner took an unannounced trip to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, to pay a visit to his friend Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, aka MbS. The two men had “forged a bond” since spending time together in Washington the previous March, speaking frequently on the telephone.

And why not? Aside from obvious differences—one was an Orthodox Jew, the other lived in a country where being an Orthodox Jew was illegal—they had much in common. They were about the same age, both ambitious, both the hidden powers behind their respective thrones, both men of wealth and taste. In Riyadh last October, the two stayed up until four in the morning, “swapping stories and planning strategy,” as David Ignatius wrote in the Washington Post.

One of the “stories” swapped, apparently, was classified information compiled from the president’s daily brief, which Kushner reportedly consumed religiously. According to the Intercept:

“In June [of 2017], Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman ousted his cousin, then-Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, and took his place as next in line to the throne, upending the established line of succession. In…

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Greg Olear

(@gregolear) is the author of DIRTY RUBLES: AN INTRODUCTION TO TRUMP/RUSSIA & the novels TOTALLY KILLER and FATHERMUCKER. Email: name [at] gmail [dot] com.