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Top Republican slams Trump for going slow and quiet on Khashoggi murder investigation

With his trade deals and personal connections to the Saudi royal family, Trump's wish that the Khashoggi slaying will fade from memory has been stillborn.

With his trade deals and personal connections to the Saudi royal family, Trump's wish that the Khashoggi slaying will fade from memory has been stillborn. Photo: Getty

Besieged by scandals and investigations, President Donald Trump is now under fire from increasingly mutinous congressional members of his own party.

With informed sources in Washington reporting that Republicans are supporting an as-yet-undisclosed deal that would see the White House forced to accept a mere fraction of the $5.7 billion dollars the President has sought to build his wall on the southern border, he is also being slammed on another front.

Aligning himself with Democrats, the lead Republican lawmaker on the House Foreign Affairs Committee has slammed the Trump administration for failing to provide a proper update on the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The White House was mandated under a congressional deadline to provide a report by Friday on Khashoggi’s torture and murder inside Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul in October.

Lawmakers are seeking to determine if Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the murder.

Despite its promises, the administration did not meet the deadline. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did, however, provide an update to Congress on Saturday, a State Department spokesperson said.

Citing a letter received from the Trump administration, House Foreign Affairs Lead Republican Michael McCaul said he was “deeply troubled”.

“Everyone involved in this gruesome crime must be identified and held accountable,” McCaul said on Saturday.

“I call on the Administration to immediately comply with the requirements of the law, and to provide Congress with the information required.”

The brutal killing of Khashoggi earned rare bipartisan condemnation from US lawmakers, with both sides calling on the White House to take a more aggressive stance towards Riyadh.

The US has placed sanctions on 17 Saudi nationals allegedly involved in the murder.

More than four months after his killing, Khashoggi’s remains have not been located.

-with AAP

Topics: Murder
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