EXCLUSIVE: Kushner Missed Chance to Save Children of US Ally from MBS

What Happened in a White House Meeting Between Jared Kushner and former Canadian PM Brian Mulroney

Omar and Sarah Aljabri in early 2020, a few weeks before their disappearance.

In December 2017, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney went to the White House to see then-senior White House Advisor Jared Kushner. Mulroney asked Kushner to mediate with Mohammed Bin Salman, who had formed a tight relationship with Kushner and had recently deposed his cousin, Mohammed Bin Nayef, and become Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince. This meeting and its specifics have not been reported before.

Mulroney asked Kushner to speak to MBS about releasing two very young political prisoners, Sarah and Omar Aljabri, then only 17 and 18. They weren’t yet in prison, though that would come. They were being detained at home in Saudi Arabia, banned from travel. The Aljabri’s father, Dr. Saad bin Khalid Aljabri, who had escaped to Canada as an exile, was considered an ally and a hero by US Intelligence.

Indeed a bipartisan group of senators describe him:

Dr. Aljabri has been credited by former CIA officials for saving thousands of American lives by discovering and preventing terrorist plots. His development of a modem forensics system in Saudi Arabia reportedly contributed to the significant curtailing of terrorist groups including Al Qaeda. His work was of vital importance to U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the post 9/11 era.

But Kushner’s answer, according to three sources with knowledge, when he came back to Mulroney a month later: Sorry, he couldn’t help Aljabri or his young kids, who have EU passports as well as Saudi. The situation, Mulroney has quoted Kushner as saying, was “toxic.” (Mulroney did not respond to an emailed question about the exchange).

Omar Aljabri and his father Dr. Saad bin Khalid Aljabri visiting high schools in 2016.

Was it toxic? Or was it that Kushner, who would controversially receive $2 billion to invest from MBS soon after he left office, did not want to rock the boat with MBS?