Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon on Friday called on the Trump administration to take immediate action after revelations that the U.S. government knew Saudi Arabian officials were spiriting criminal suspects out of the U.S. for more than a decade yet never intervened.

Wyden called it a “wide-ranging coverup” that has ranged over successive presidents.

“This has gone on through Republican and Democratic administrations, but it is up to the Trump administration to do something about it — today,” Wyden, Democrat, said in a statement. “Anything less amounts to a craven betrayal of Americans’ interests on behalf of a murderous, autocratic regime.

Wyden’s forceful remarks followed a story co-published by The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica that showed how the FBI, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other agencies have been aware of the Saudi actions since at least 2008.

Current and former American officials claimed that Saudi diplomats, intelligence officers and other operatives have assisted in the illegal flight of Saudi fugitives, most of them university students, after they were charged with crimes in the U.S. including rape and manslaughter.

The Saudis bailed the suspects out of jail, hired lawyers to defend them, arranged their travel home and covered forfeited bonds for the fugitives, the officials said.

But American administrations, including those of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, have avoided confronting the government in Riyadh out of concern that doing so might jeopardize U.S. interests, particularly Saudi cooperation in the fight against Islamist terrorism, current and former officials said.

“Our government was aware of this pattern at least a decade ago,” Wyden said, citing the news report. “Rather than take action, federal officials have refused to provide any meaningful information to Congress and participated in what appears to be a wide-ranging coverup.”

Wyden began pressing the Trump administration for information 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, 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 prosecution to 25.

Though longtime allies, 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.

A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington, Fahad Nazer, said that “a small fraction” of Saudi students in the United States have gotten into legal trouble, and that Saudi officials have “strictly adhered to all U.S. laws” in helping them.

While Wyden and fellow Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, also a Democrat, introduced legislation in January aimed at punishing Saudi Arabia for its suspected role in helping Saudi criminal suspects flee the U.S., the proposals have attracted little fanfare on Capitol Hill.

Wyden also has struggled to compel various federal agencies to share what they know. The FBI last month rebuffed a formal request from the senator to turn over information it might have on suspected Saudi fugitives.

In February, the State Department told him that it was unlikely to play any role in trying to secure the return of Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah, accused of killing Portland teen Fallon Smart in a hit-and-run crash, suggesting it would not seek diplomatic measures. Federal law enforcement officials believe the Saudi Arabian government helped Noorah flee the U.S. weeks before his manslaughter trial in 2017.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department said in a March letter to Wyden that federal law enforcement options are limited when it comes to Saudi nationals accused of crimes in the U.S. who have returned to their country.

“Today’s news removes any excuse for further inaction or stonewalling by this administration,” Wyden said.

Read more stories from this series here.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632

Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh

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