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KEY POINTS As Washington wrestled with the disappearance and possible murder of the Saudi journalist-in-exile Jamal Khashoggi this week, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said enough is enough.

Graham's dramatic plea points to a potentially devastating problem for Saudi Arabia, a country whose young crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, has been heralded as a visionary reformist leader, and who has spent heavily to promote that image.

After the disappearance of Khashoggi, the question has become: Can any amount of money burnish Saudi Arabia's image?

As Washington wrestled this week with the disappearance and possible murder of the Saudi journalist-in-exile Jamal Khashoggi, South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said enough is enough. "The one thing I've learned from John McCain above all else is that, in moments like this, you have to embrace your values," Graham, told reporters Thursday, referencing the deceased Arizona Republican who cultivated an image as an independent minded legislator. "No more transactional interactions." The comments from Graham marked a rhetorical turnaround for the senator. Just a year ago, Graham helped scuttle a bill that would have blocked the sale of about $500 million in American weapons to Saudi Arabia. Graham and McCain, who died in August from brain cancer, had publicly supported Saudi Arabia's controversial campaign in Yemen that sparked the outcry over U.S. arms sales to the country. Graham's dramatic plea points to a potentially devastating problem for Saudi Arabia, a country whose young crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, has been heralded as a visionary reformist leader. On Wednesday, nearly two dozen lawmakers demanded that the Trump administration investigate the circumstances of Khashoggi's disappearance.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (L) meets with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on March 20, 2018 in Washington, DC. Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

Under Crown Prince Mohammed, the country has spent heavily to promote that image, which dovetails with a decadeslong effort. The country has quietly built an army of consultants in Washington to ensure that the kingdom's goals are not blocked in America's corridors of power. Indeed, the Republican senator, who sits on the Senate's influential Armed Services and Appropriations Committees, has been at the very center of Saudi Arabia's sprawling, multi-million dollar influence campaign in Washington. Last year, as Saudi Arabia's lobbying arm made more than 2,500 individual contacts with American lawmakers, Graham was the single-most contacted, according to forthcoming research from Ben Freeman, the director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative at the Center for International Policy. The country doled out more than $100 million to consultants and public relations firms in the decade after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in order to bolster its public reputation, according to a 2010 book by Mitchell Bard. That effort that has ramped up since Trump's election in 2016, and has continued to today, with the country hiring two more American firms just last month. Public records show the country has spent more than $23 million on its D.C. lobbying efforts since last year — a fraction of the amount that could be spent outside of channels that must be disclosed by law, experts say.

'This story has broken through'