Jamal Khashoggi's Disappearance: Secret Service Blocks Journalist From Questioning Jared Kushner

CBS News correspondent Errol Barnett posted a video Tuesday night that shows Secret Service agents blocking him when he attempted to ask White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner a question about the disappearance of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The incident took place when Barnett saw Ivanka Trump and Kushner on his flight from Washington to New York.

In the video, Barnett can be seen attempting to ask Kushner a question, but before he could finish, Secret Service agents blocked his phone and one of the agents told him, “I don’t give a damn who you are. There’s a time and place.”

A Secret Service spokesperson responded to the video by saying, “The Secret Service is aware of the video posted on Twitter today by @errolbarnett. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under review. Pending receipt of additional facts, details and full circumstances surrounding the incident, appropriate action will be taken if necessary. No further comment will be made until the incident is able to be fully reviewed.”

Kushner, who is President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has been playing a major role in the White House’s response to the journalist’s disappearance. Kushner reportedly has a close relationship with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the Saudi throne. As part of White House's efforts to get Saudi Arabia to participate in an investigation into Khashoggi’s case, the two have been in direct phone conversations over the past few days.

Khashoggi, a permanent U.S. resident and contributor to the Washington Post, went missing on Oct.2 after visiting the Saudi consulate in Turkey, to complete the paperwork needed to marry his Turkish fiancée.

The Turkish government alleged Saudi Arabia dispatched a 15-member team to kill Khashoggi while he was inside the consulate. It also reportedly has audio and video recordings to prove Khashoggi was killed in the consulate.

Officials from the United States and Turkey told the Washington Post that the recording showed a Saudi security team detaining Khashoggi inside the consulate. They also claimed the team then killed him and dismembered his body.

“The voice recording from inside the embassy lays out what happened to Jamal after he entered. You can hear his voice and the voices of men speaking Arabic. You can hear how he was interrogated, tortured and then murdered,” a person with knowledge of the recordings told the Post.

Reports also suggested that Khashoggi was killed minutes after he walked into the consulate and not after any interrogation. He was dragged from the Consul General’s office and onto the table of his study next door where Salah Muhammad al-Tubaigy, an autopsy expert, dismembered his body. Tubaigy was reportedly listening to music while dismembering and he also advised others present in the room to do the same, a Turkish source the news website Middle East Eye.

Saudi initially denied any role in the disappearance, however, multiple reports suggest that Saudi is preparing to say that Khashoggi's death was the result of an interrogation that went wrong.

Since Khashoggi’s disappearance, Kushner’s close relationship with the Saudi crown prince has been the subject of intense scrutiny. Kushner, whose White House portfolio includes Middle Eastern affairs, was also the driving force behind the Trump’s decision to make Saudi the destination for his first foreign trip in May 2017.