Trump Welcomes Saudi Crown Prince Named in Epstein Files - LAmag

Jeffrey Epstein maintained powerful relationships in the Middle East, and was frequently in contact with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salam whose visit to the White House last year was widely condemned by the families behind a landmark civil suit filed against the Saudi royal family.

Among the photos recovered in Epstein’s New York City townhouse was an undated photo of the billionaire standing alongside the Crown Prince, who was all smiles, an arm slung around the convicted pedophile’s shoulder. In one redacted email in the Department of Justice document dump an unknown writer told Epstein the photo of him with the defacto leader of Saudi Arabia was “very valuable.”

The Epstein files name the Crown Prince 97 times, references that include news clippings and emails from the convicted pedophile’s longtime assistant, Lesley Groff. In one dated Nov. 1, 2016, Groff told Epstein that he needed to go to the Saudi Consulate and drop the Crown Prince’s name to update his visa for a planned visit, writing: “Aziza suggests we go to the Saudi Arabia Consulate today with your passport and ask to speak with Nageete re your visa…she says to tell them when we arrive at gate that you jeffrey Epstein, has an invitation from His Royal Highness: PRINCE mohammed bin salman.”

Another email sent to Epstein by a redacted sender talked about the Saudi government’s connection to journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal torture and death in Oct. 2018.

The email read: “A Turkish opinion columnist on Thursday said the CIA had wiretapped a phone call in which Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called for the Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi to be silenced ‘as soon as possible,” and was dated Nov. 18, 2022 – a month after the journalist’s brutal murder by Saudi intelligence agents in Istanbul.

In the same email exchange, the redacted sender added another message for Epstein: “I am so grateful for the years that I had with you and for your guidance, love, and naughtiness. Big hug.” Despite the Crown Prince’s association with the journalist’s death, Epstein planned to visit him in 2019, a trip that was canceled after his arrest on federal human trafficking charges and subsequent death in a Manhattan federal lockup.

By then, investigators had recovered an Austrian passport that listed Epstein’s nationality as Saudi.

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fresh drops

Recently declassified FBI documents about the Saudis’ connection to 9/11 are at the center of new evidence regarding the hijackers’ arrival in Los Angeles, where they were supported, lawyers argue, by high-ranking Saudi officials linked to a Culver City mosque named for the Crown Prince’s paternal uncle King Fahad, who paid for its construction before his death.

The allegations, and the alarming trove of evidence cited by a federal judge overseeing the federal suit Ashton et al v. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, were the subject of an investigative piece by Los Angeles published Monday. The

families behind the lawsuitwere apoplectic when President Trump invited the Crown Prince to the White House late last year. National Chair of 9/11 Families United

Terry Strada argued in an op-edthat any agreement with Riyadh must recognize the ongoing litigation and the established links and still mounting evidence of the Saudi Kingdom’s involvement in the September 11 attacks.

“We are not calling for isolation or hostility — we are calling for accountability for the Saudi role in the attacks on September 11, 2001,” Strada writes. “Before we talk about defense pacts or nuclear technology, let’s first talk about justice.”

On Tuesday, Groff was among seven high-profile Epstein associates subpoenaed to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee as part of its investigation into Epstein, according to Chairman James Comer. Bill Gates, President Obama’s former legal counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, who stepped down from her role at Goldman Sachs last month, and Leon Black are among the others who are now slated to explain their relationships with the late sex trafficker.