In another instance, Tillerson explained in detail being stunned by the 2017 Persian Gulf crisis in which key Arab allies severed ties with Qatar, another key U.S. ally. He said he was in Australia at the time with then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and both were caught off guard. “I was surprised,” Tillerson said. He also said he was not aware of meetings that had been occurring between Arab leaders and Kushner, including a private huddle on May 20, 2017, between Kushner, Trump’s then-senior adviser Stephen K. Bannon and the rulers of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Asked by the committee staff what his reaction was to “a meeting of that sort having taken place without your knowledge,” Tillerson responded that it made him “angry,” and you can kind of understand why! “I didn’t have a say,” he told staffers. “The State Department’s views were never expressed.”

At one point, deeply frustrated that the first son-in-law was going abroad and effectively running “his own agenda,” Tillerson says he confronted Kushner about the issue, to which Kushner responded that he “would try to do better,” but “not much changed.” It’s unclear if Kushner has deigned to inform Tillerson‘s successor, Mike Pompeo, of his meetings with world leaders. In March, Kushner had a sit-down with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during which the U.S. embassy in Riyadh was reportedly “largely left in the dark on the details of Kushner’s schedule and his conversations with Saudi officials, according to two individuals with knowledge of the trip to the country.” If Pompeo has been kept in the loop thus far, it’s also possible those courtesies will not last considering the secretary of state’s prediction for the peace plan’s prospects. According to an audio recording obtained by the Washington Post, Pompeo told those assembled in a closed-door meeting at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations last month: “It may be rejected. Could be in the end, folks will say, ‘It’s not particularly original, it doesn’t particularly work for me,’ that is, ‘It’s got two good things and nine bad things, I’m out.’”