Jared Kushner quietly meets with Saudi Crown prince amid day of chaos on Capitol Hill

President's son-in-law takes quiet international trip as his former lawyer details his crimes on Capitol Hill

Jared Kushner quietly met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman during a foreign trip featuring meetings with top Middle East officials that is sure to raise controversy in the United States.

The White House released a readout of the previously non-disclosed meeting between the Crown Prince and Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser just minutes after the president’s former attorney and “fixer” began a highly-anticipated public testimony before the House Oversight Committee.

News outlets across the country were covering the developments on Capitol Hill in real-time as one of Mr Trump’s closest former confidants detailed his alleged criminal conduct, racism and lies from the 2016 presidential election and after assuming the Oval Office.

Mr Kushner was meeting with the 33-year-old Saudi Arabian leader for the first time since the Crown Prince was alleged by the international community and global intelligence experts to have ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist killed inside a Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Mr Khashoggi was a notable journalist who frequently wrote reports critical of the Saudi government.

Mr Khashoggi’s death — and the Crown Prince’s supposed involvement in that atrocity — was not included in the readout released by the White House on Wednesday, however.

As for the president, Mr Trump has repeatedly declined to punish, condemn or even implicate Saudi leadership in the death of Mr Khashoggi, a US resident who lived in Virginia before he was killed.

Turkish officials also confirmed on Wednesday that Mr Kushner — tasked with restoring peace throughout the Middle East region by the White House — had met with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country’s president. He was joined by Berat Albayrak, Turkey’s economy minister who also happens to be a son-in-law of the Turkish president.

Mr Kushner, who has said he plans to release a full plan on his Mideast peace initiative after Israel conducts its elections 9 April, said he is ultimately seeking economic “opportunities” for Palestinians.

He did not mention whether he’d support the establishment of a Palestinian state, but only that he would address “final status” issues, reportedly including borders, the Associated Press reported.

Saudi officials have long denied any involvement in Mr Khashoggi’s murder, claiming the Crown Prince and his father were unaware of the attacks.

“The Middle East is a rough place,” Mr Kushner said in an interview with CNN last year. “It's been a rough place for a very long time.”

“We have to be able to pursue our strategic objectives,” he added. “But we also have to deal with what is obviously a terrible situation.”