Seventeen months have passed since the October 2018 murder of journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey by a Saudi hit squad. President Donald Trump has maintained that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), who he considers a valuable U.S. ally, played no part in the assassination — that the killers acted without his knowledge. But Trump’s critics have accused him of being disingenuous. And the Washington Post’s editorial board, in an editorial published on March 8, slams Trump for continuing to “stonewall” Congress about Khashoggi’s murder.
“The Trump Administration has repeatedly defied the law in resisting efforts by Congress to enforce accountability for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” the editorial asserts. “The latest instance came last month, when the administration responded — a month late — to a requirement in last year’s defense authorization act for an unclassified report identifying anyone implicated in ‘the directing, ordering or tampering of evidence’ in the case of Khashoggi.”
CIA Director Gina Haspel has said that she believes MBS played a direct role in Khaghoggi’s murder, and the Post notes that in 2019, a United Nations (UN) report had the same view. But the Post stresses that regardless, Trump has continued to be evasive. Continue reading.
The end of last week was the final date for the Trump administration to submit a congressional report answering whether the Saudi crown prince was responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October. The administration let the deadline pass with little acknowledgment.