Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly bragged about having Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner "in his pocket" and may have obtained highly sensitive intelligence from the President's Daily Briefing (PDB) in his violent crackdown on dissent.

The investigative news site The Intercept reports that Kushner had revealed names of Saudis who were later rounded up by Prince Mohammed's forces and, in some cases, tortured.  Prince Mohammed - known as MBS in Washington - later reportedly told his United Arab Emirates counterpart Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed that Kushner was "in his pocket".

Kushner's defense attorneys denied leaking names of Saudi critics.  "Some questions by the media are so obviously false and ridiculous that they merit no response," claimed Peter Mirijanian, a spokesperson for Kushner's lawyer Abbe Lowell.  "This is one."

If the report is true, it's an incredible problem for the White House.  Chief of Staff John Kelly last month downgraded Kushner's security clearance because Kushner couldn't pass the background check.  Despite this, he allegedly accessed the PDB and shared it outside the country to someone who used the information to effectively pull off an internal coup and silence his opposition.

Kushner allegedly communicated with MBS and the UAE crown prince via WhatsApp, which The Intercept describes as "a reasonably secure messaging app owned by Facebook and popular in the Middle East".