Biden Under Fire for Moving to Shield Mohammed bin Salman from Legal Action in Killing Jamaal Khashoggi

The Biden administration is under scrutiny for seeking immunity for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman over the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

“Mohammed bin Salman, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is the sitting head of government and, accordingly, is immune from this suit,” reads a Department of Justice filing filed on Thursday in response to a lawsuit brought by Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz.

This development comes despite the fact the United States has deemed Bin Salman as having approved the murder, which occurred at the Saudi embassy in Turkey in October 2018.

So why seek immunity?

CNN senior national security coordinator Alex Marquardt reported on Friday:

The administration … says this is long-standing practice, that this international law that foreign heads of government are granted immunity from prosecution. Now normally … the crown prince of Saudi Arabia is not a head of government, he’s simply the son of the king. But a couple weeks ago the king, King Salman, gave his son, the crown prince, the title of prime minister so then he technically became the head of the Saudi government.

The State Department said in a statement to CNN that the immunity does not necessarily mean Bin Salman is innocent of the murder.

“This Suggestion of Immunity does not reflect an assessment on the merits of the case. It speaks to nothing on broader policy or the state of relations,” said the department. “This was purely a legal determination.”

Despite initially taking a hawkish tone toward Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi’s death, the administration has sought to better ties with Saudi Arabia due to high gas prices in the United States in which Washington has been requesting that Saudi Arabia and OPEC+ increase oil production to lower prices at the pump. Biden visited Saudi Arabia in July and met with Bin Salman. The cartel has instead cut production, causing Biden to re-evaluate of the U.S.-Saudi relationship.

Twitter users blasted Thursday’s development.

Watch above via CNN.