Oregon’s senior U.S. senator took to the Senate floor to accuse the Trump administration of refusing to investigate the Saudi Arabian government’s suspected role in spiriting accused criminals out of the United States.

Sen. Ron Wyden delivered the rebuke during a speech Monday focused on the slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi operatives last year at the Persian Gulf kingdom’s consulate in Turkey.

Wyden said the White House’s continued reluctance to condemn Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his possible role in Khashoggi’s killing fit into a larger pattern of deference by the U.S. toward its longtime ally, even as Saudi conduct abroad faces mounting scrutiny.

The senator then turned his attention to a growing number of cases where students from Saudi Arabia have vanished while facing criminal charges around the country.

“In one of the most dismal and disappointing responses I have seen to any national security concern, this administration refuses to look into whether Saudi officials helped Saudi criminal suspects flee the United States to escape justice,” said Wyden, a Democrat and member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

“Example after example, whether it’s within our borders, in a consulate office in Istanbul or elsewhere, this administration helps to cover up the Saudi government’s brutality.”

A White House spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wyden’s remarks come nearly six months after The Oregonian/OregonLive revealed criminal cases involving at least five Saudi nationals who disappeared from Oregon before they faced trial or completed their jail sentence on charges ranging from rape to manslaughter, including those who had surrendered their passports to authorities.

The news organization has since found similar cases in at least seven other states — Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin — and Canada, bringing the total number of known Saudi suspects who have escaped U.S. prosecution to 25.

In April, a story co-published by The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica showed how the FBI, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other agencies have been aware of Saudi officials helping their country’s citizens flee since at least 2008 yet never intervened.

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia don’t share an extradition treaty. That makes the return of any Saudi suspect who has left the U.S. unlikely if not impossible without diplomatic or political pressure.

Since the pattern of Saudi fugitives escaping justice in the U.S. first emerged, Wyden has been one of the only lawmakers in Washington to raise concerns or demand action.

He and fellow Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, also a Democrat, introduced legislation in January aimed at punishing Saudi Arabia for assisting Saudi fugitives. Their proposals, however, have gained no traction on Capitol Hill.

In public and private, Wyden has also repeatedly pressed federal agencies — including the U.S. Marshals Service, Customs and Border Protection, the FBI and the departments of Justice, State and Homeland Security — for answers.

Those agencies, Wyden said, have not been forthcoming with information, nor do they appear interested in probing the issue further.

“Based on its pathetic response to date, it’s clear the Trump administration believes it is acceptable for Saudi fugitives accused of assault and rape of American citizens to escape with impunity,” Wyden told The Oregonian/OregonLive in a statement Tuesday.

“More Americans will be victims of these kinds of crimes unless the Trump administration puts American lives ahead of its infatuation with the repressive Saudi regime.”

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632

Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh

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