The IPI global network urges U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. lawmakers and officials to raise Saudi Arabia’s record of human rights abuses and press freedom violations, including the brutal killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s White House visit this week.
Crown Prince bin Salman will visit the White House on November 18 for the first time since the assassination of Khashoggi in 2018, amid reports of intensifying press freedom and human rights abuses by the Saudi regime. During the visit, bin Salman and Trump are expected to discuss a U.S.-Saudi defense pact, as well as collaboration on AI and nuclear energy.
On October 2, 2018, Khashoggi was brutally murdered by a team of 15 Saudi agents while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to collect a document he needed for his upcoming marriage. After his killing, Khashoggi was dismembered with a bone saw. To date, his remains have not been found.
A U.S. intelligence investigation found with “high confidence” that the crown prince ordered Khashoggi’s assassination, while a 2019 UN report held the Saudi state responsible for “premeditated execution.” However, bin Salman and senior Saudi officials close to the crown prince have faced no accountability.
The U.S. has played a critical role in enabling the Saudi regime in evading accountability. In 2018, President Trump, then in his first term, called the Khasogghi murder the “worst cover-up in history” but also bragged that he protected the crown prince from facing the consequences of his involvement. Under the Biden administration, the U.S. State Department determined bin Salman was immune from prosecution for Khashoggi’s killing.
Since Khashoggi’s murder, bin Salman has presided over a fierce crackdown on dissent and free expression in the country. In 2018 alone, dozens of journalists and activists were arbitrarily jailed, often on terrorism or treason-related charges, for criticizing Saudi Arabia’s leadership. A 2024 State Department report found that the U.S. government had failed to take “credible steps or action” to punish those responsible for human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, including the unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists.
The use of the death penalty to silence political dissent in Saudi Arabia has also surged in the past year. According to Freedom House, at least 300 people were executed in 2025 alone, including the June 14 execution of prominent Saudi journalist Turki al-Jasser, who was killed in the largest mass execution in the Kingdom’s modern history.
“We remind the U.S. that human rights – including freedom of the press – are essential and powerful tools for peacebuilding and security”, IPI Executive Director Scott Griffen said. “As the Trump administration concludes new trade and military deals with a regime that is openly hostile to human rights, and with a history of killing independent journalists and critics, we urge U.S. leaders on both sides of the aisle who believe in free expression and democracy to demand full accountability for the murder of Khashoggi. They should also seize this opportunity to vocalize their support for the rights of journalists to do their jobs freely and safely all over the world.”