Washington (CNN) Some conservatives have been peddling smears against missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in an effort to cushion President Donald Trump from blowback over his handling of the situation with Saudi Arabia, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Efforts to raise questions about Khashoggi have made their way to Capitol Hill, where a group of House Republicans have been circulating articles from conservative outlets that tie the missing journalist to the Muslim Brotherhood and Osama bin Laden, the Post reported.

Among those circulating such claims is Donald Trump Jr., who last week retweeted an unsubstantiated claim insinuating Khashoggi is a terrorist sympathizer.

The series of tweets that Trump Jr. retweeted included a post with an image showing Khashoggi, a prominent journalist in the Middle East, appearing beside individuals identified as members of the Islamist group and holding a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. A separate photograph in the article shows Osama bin Laden and some of his associates. Bin Laden co-founded al Qaeda in the late 1980s.

Khashoggi covered al Qaeda as a foreign correspondent in Afghanistan and Sudan and was well-known for his several interviews with bin Laden. He distanced himself from bin Laden after the September 11 terrorist attacks. At the time of the news article posted, the United States was arming and funding the mujahedeen in the Soviet-Afghan War.

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