Saudi crown prince boasts he has Trump’s backing to torture princes and seize their wealth as he sends billionaire Twitter owner to prison in ’anti-corruption’ probe

How Trump reacted to the original arrests - which included Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the billionaire Twitter investor who had been a critic of the president

The princes, including one of the world's richest men, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, were arrested suddenly at the beginning of November, held in the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, and - a source told Dailymail.com later that month - being tortured.

Saudi authorities want to claw back $100 billion in assets which they claim the detainees have made through corruption. Many appear to have made settlements with the authorities to gain their freedom. 

The White House declined to comment to DailyMail.com but Wolff's book revealed the warm relations with MBS and reported how Trump told friends: 'Jared's gotten the Arabs totally on our side. Done deal.

Wolff writes that Salman, 32, befriended Kushner, 37, after the U.S. election, and 'offered himself to Kushner as his guy in the Saudi kingdom.'

MBS was deputy crown prince at the time, but in March 2017 he was the first Muslim and first Middle Eastern leader to score a meeting with Trump at the White House.

Wolff's book says the relationship between Trump's team and the ambitious Saudi prince was cemented when the White House chose Saudi Arabia as his first foreign destination as president in May last year.

During their lavish reception in the kingdom, Trump, Kushner and their wives Melania and Ivanka were 'ferried around in gold golf carts' and treated to a $75 million party in the president's honor, where Trump was seated on a 'thronelike chair,' Wolff wrote. The reception was off-camera. 

Salman and Trump struck a $350 billion arms deal, and in May MBS's father King Salman made him crown prince, deposing Prince Muhammad bin Nayef who had been heir to the throne.

And in October, Kushner made a third, secret, trip to the kingdom where The Washington Post reported he 'stayed up until nearly 4 a.m. several nights' with MBS, just a few days before the November round-up.

Now DailyMail.com can disclose that MBS has told his own inner circle that his support from Trump did not end there, and extends to details of his financial plans.

Trump, he has said, agreed to allow the Saudi leader to seize all the U.S. assets of the Saudi officials he arrested in November, according to the source.

The assets include 'real estate, companies, private jets, yachts and huge amounts of cash in short and long term investments,' the source said.

Salman arrested 11 Saudi princes and 190 officials and businessmen on November 4, ostensibly as the result of a two-year corruption investigation, and has been interrogating them for weeks.

The claim of approval from Trump to proceed with the round-up comes from a source in Saudi Arabia.

'Trump promised MBS the White House will provide all support needed to facilitate the transfer of all cash and assets on U.S. soil belonging to the detained royals to the direct control/ownership of the Saudi embassy in Washington,' said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.

The source said MBS had said Trump had two conditions for the agreement. First that 'all these assets remain in American banks and never ever get transferred back to Saudi Arabia.'

The president's second condition was that 'the transfer must be based on a power of attorney signed by the detained royals, by the Saudi foreign and justice ministries, and notarized by the US embassy in Riyadh,' the source said.

The assets which the Saudi Arabian government wants to seize include the arrested Alwaleed's multi-billion dollar investment company Kingdom Holding. He owns 95 per cent of it, having floated five per cent on the Saudi stock market.

DailyMail.com disclosed in November that Alwaleed, whose net worth is estimated at $17 billion, was among those being tortured. 

Close ties: MBS's visit to Washington in March made him the first Middle Eastern leader in the White House. Months later he was made crown prince and is de facto ruler

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