White House declines to submit report to Congress on Khashoggi killing

[UpInArms]

Source: Washington Post

The Trump administration declined Friday to submit a report to Congress determining whether Saudi Arabia’s crown prince is personally responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Senators had asked for the finding by Friday, with an eye to imposing new human rights sanctions on Saudi Arabia over the journalist’s Oct. 2 killing inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Under the Magnitsky Act, the president has 120 days to respond to a direct request from Congress about possible violations. The request, made Oct. 10 in a letter signed by 11 Democratic and 11 Republican senators, required the administration to make a determination of responsibility for the killing, particularly including involvement by the Saudi royal family, and to act on it by imposing sanctions on responsible individuals.

“The President maintains his discretion to decline to act on congressional committee requests when appropriate,” a senior administration official said in a statement. “The U.S. Government will continue to consult with Congress and work to hold accountable those responsible for Jamal Khashoggi’s killing.”

The Trump administration cited the constitutional separation of powers and the precedent of the Obama administration in declining to meet what the lawmakers had called a deadline. The decision was expected, and a bipartisan Senate bill introduced Thursday would supersede the request and direct the president to impose sanctions on anyone — including Saudi officials and the royal family — he determines was “responsible, or complicit in, ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing” acts that caused or contributed to Khashoggi’s death.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/politics/white-house-declines-to-submit-report-to-congress-on-khashoggi-killing/2019/02/08/fdab7f96-2bd4-11e9-984d-9b8fba003e81_story.html

[BumRushDaShow]

1. "maintains his discretion to decline to act on congressional committee requests when appropriate"

That's not how "check and balance" works.

[rurallib]

2. well, it's not like they can indict him or anything

so why should he care?

[BumRushDaShow]

11. True but they can defund him though!

[NCjack]

3. The Speaker should begin hacking on the WH operating budget. nt

[TexasBushwhacker]

4. And Jeff Bezos has been all over this

and is definitely not going to let up NOW.

[Me.]

5. He Does Know That The Senate Is Headed By The Cons...Right?

The people he needs for his wall?

[keithbvadu2]

6. I make $40 million, $50 million from Saudi Arabia. I like them a lot.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211290698

Trump, August 2015: I make $40 million, $50 million from Saudi Arabia. I like them a lot.

Link to tweet

?ref_src=

[UpInArms]

7. Grrrrrr...

Am certain I am going to spontaneously combust

[BigmanPigman]

8. I'll join you!

I read this story an hour ago and ...

[guss]

9. Trump canon fodder

Khashoggi was not warn by the state department.
that he was endangered going there.
Saudi wanted him killed.
he died to appease the Trump dept owned by the Saudi Prince.
About the same time the Mike Flynn was working working with Hungary
to Kidnap a cleric that Hungary Wanted to Detain.
then when the Saudi's Butchered Khashoggi . who was Hunagry Related.
they tried to deport the cleric to appease Hungary for the murder.
What the goon administration.

[TomCADem]

10. Will Bernie Support Trump? Bernie Sanders Voted Against The Magnitsky Act...

...as well as the 2017 Russian Sanctions Bill, and skipped the vote last month to block the Trump administration from easing sanctions on Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire with ties to Russia's president, Vladimir Putin.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/16/senate-democrats-vote-to-block-trump-from-lifting-russia-sanctions-fails.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/07/14/the-magnitsky-act-explained/?utm_term=.2ff3a1c2e297

Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who attended the June 9, 2016, meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr., has for years been working to overturn the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 U.S. law that barred Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses.

* * *
The law is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer and auditor who in 2008 untangled a dense web of tax fraud and graft involving 23 companies and a total of $230 million linked to the Kremlin and individuals close to the government. Magnitsky was the target of investigations, arrested by authorities and kept in jail without charges. He was beaten and later died under mysterious circumstances in jail just days before his possible release.

Independent investigators found “inhuman detention conditions, the isolation from his family, the lack of regular access to his lawyers and the intentional refusal to provide adequate medical assistance resulted in the deliberate infliction of severe pain and suffering, and ultimately his death.”

* * *
The Magnitsky Act was signed by President Barack Obama in December 2012 as a retaliation against the human rights abuses suffered by Magnitsky. The law at first blocked 18 Russian government officials and businessmen from entering the United States, froze any assets held by U.S. banks and banned their future use of U.S. banking systems. The act was expanded in 2016, and now sanctions apply to 44 suspected human rights abusers worldwide.

[Achilleaze]

12. republicans have blood on their hands

[lark]

13. Total waste of time because drumpf and Kushner were co-conspirators in the murder plot.

Yeah, like drumpf would ever rat out his money source of himself - a total waste of time. This is not being investigated at the federal level and had zero resources put into the search because he knows the facts and participated in the murder plot. Kusher was an accessory, bringing MBS tapes of Khashoggi showing his research into MBS and drumpf treachery.

[Firestorm49]

14. "The Trump administration cited the constitutional separation of powers ........"

Oops. I believe that the correct interpretation is “citing the consolidation of powers” .....
They must have erred.

[dalton99a]

15. .

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211798004

[MineralMan]

16. Of course it declines.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. "administration official" scared of their name appearing in a story about the coverup of murder

Statements of the official position of the White House should not be reported as coming from just "a senior administration official". The collaborator with Trump and the Saudi regime should be named - and shamed. That way, Trump will have to do more of his dirty work himself, as those who hope to have a later career resign rather than aid him.