Jared Kushner is reportedly urging Trump to stand by the Saudi crown prince until the Khashoggi crisis blows over

• Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's Middle East adviser, is close to Saudi Arabia's millennial crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and reportedly talks to him on WhatsApp.
• He has not taken a public role in the US response to Saudi Arabia over the disappearance and likely murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
• According to the New York Times, Kushner has behind the scenes been urging President Donald Trump to stand by Saudi Arabia, asserting that it will blow over in time.

Jared Kushner is reportedly urging President Donald Trump to stand by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman amid the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as Kushner believes that he will survive global outrage over the crisis.

Khashoggi, who wrote columns for The Washington Post, disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Turkish officials have leaked gruesome details of what they say is Khashoggi's killing to US and Turkish pro-government media over the past two weeks.

Kushner, the president's son-in-law and adviser on Middle East affairs, has argued that bin Salman can weather the storm of outrage over the Khashoggi crisis, The New York Times reported on Thursday. The newspaper cited a source close to the White House, and a former official with knowledge of the discussions.

Kushner argued that bin Salman had survived criticism of the Gulf kingdom in the past, and could do so again, The New York Times said.

The report also suggested that the Saudis could blame Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, a top intelligence official with close ties to the crown prince, for Khashoggi's disappearance and alleged murder.

That account squares with other reports that Riyadh plans to admit that Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi agents, but will scapegoat a rogue general acting beyond his authority.

Read more: One of the men suspected of killing Jamal Khashoggi reportedly died in a car crash after returning to Saudi Arabia

Kushner has taken a back seat to US discussions over Khashoggi, reportedly due to his close relationship with 33-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler of the Gulf kingdom.

Senior White House officials fear that Kushner's public involvement would prompt further backlash over the US response to the Khashoggi crisis, CNN reported.

Kushner has communicated with Crown Prince Mohammed over encrypted messaging service WhatsApp in the past, and provided readouts of the conversations to Trump's team after they take place, CNN added.

Earlier this week a Secret Service agent physically prevented CBS correspondent Errol Barnett from asking Kushner about the Khashoggi investigation.

"I don't give a damn who you work for," the agent said, according to a video Barnett posted of the incident, adding that there was a "time and place" for such questions.

Trump's response to the Khashoggi crisis has been lukewarm. The president, who often touts the billions of dollars worth of US arms deals with Riyadh, has been wary of implicating the Saudi leadership in Khashoggi's disappearance.

On Thursday he made what was perhaps his most forceful statement yet on the Khashoggi episode, telling The New York Times: "Unless the miracle of all miracles happens, I would acknowledge that he's dead. That's based on everything - intelligence coming from every side."

Previously Trump suggested the "rogue killers," rather than Saudi state agents, could be responsible for Khashoggi's disappearance, and said criticism against the Saudi kingdom over Khashoggi was an instance of "guilty until proven innocent."

He has also repeatedly said he would not halt arms sales to Riyadh over the Khashoggi crisis.

Saudi Arabia has long weathered negative press reports over its human-rights record, which have continued after bin Salman was appointed Crown Prince in June 2017 and effectively handed control of the Gulf kingdom.

Last November the country's detained more than 200 members of the elite, including 11 princes, in the luxurious Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh for two months as part of a so-called anti-corruption purge. Bin Salman was widely seen as the mastermind behind the purge as he consolidated his power in the kingdom.

Around the same time the kingdom also detained Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri for about three weeks in Saudi Arabia, during which Hariri abruptly announced his resignation. Hariri later returned to Lebanon, after an intervention from France, and declared that he had suspended his resignation.

It also continues to wage a bloody war in Yemen, which has according to some calculations caused 50,000 deaths.