So like Biden. He has the backbone of a jellyfish.
The Biden administration on Thursday suggested that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman be granted immunity from a lawsuit filed against him over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In a court filing, the administration noted the crown prince’s appointment as prime minister in September, which they said made him “the sitting head of government of a foreign state.”
“Under common law principles of immunity articulated by the Executive Branch in the exercise of its Constitutional authority over foreign affairs and informed by customary international law, Prime Minister Bin Salman as a sitting head of government is immune while in office from the jurisdiction of the United States District Court in this suit,” the court filing reads.
The filing noted, however, that the Biden administration, in making the immunity determination, takes “no view on the merits of the present suit and reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of the heinous murder of Jamal Khashoggi.”
Ultimately, a judge will have the final say on whether or not to grant immunity to the crown prince.
Thursday’s filing is the result of a lawsuit filed by Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, and the rights group Khashoggi founded, Democracy for the Arab World Now.
On Twitter, Cengiz took aim at the Biden administration’s immunity request, saying that by doing so, the U.S. government has “saved the murderer” and that the president, has “saved the criminal and got involved in the crime himself.”
“The United States state department has granted immunity to #MBS. It wasn’t a decision everyone expected. We thought maybe there would be a light to justice from #USA But again, money came first.” she wrote.
In a follow-up post, the human rights activists declared that “Jamal died again today.”