Wyden Presses State Department for Update on Use of Fallon Smart Policy, Urges Trump to Reset U.S.-Saudi Policy
Senator: “I will not be silent when Saudi Arabia tries to cleanse its blood-stained hands, nor will I cease to hold Saudi officials accountable for the death of Fallon Smart and others like hers.”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden today asked the Trump administration to provide an update on the State Department’s implementation of the Fallon Smart Policy, which requires the department to identify and revoke visas of any foreign official helping foreign criminal suspects evade prosecution by absconding from the United States.
The State Department policy secured by Wyden two years ago takes its name from a 15-year-old Portland girl struck and killed by a speeding car in 2016. The driver accused in her hit-and-run death on Portland’s Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard was a Saudi national who The Oregonian reported fled the country before trial – ultimate resurfacing in Saudi Arabia -- with the likely assistance of the Saudi government.
“The Fallon Smart Policy sends a strong message that there is no place in our country for foreign officials helping criminal suspects evade the law,” Wyden wrote Secretary of State Marco Rubio in today’s letter. “As I promised the family of Fallon Smart, I will birddog the implementation of this policy and make sure the Fallon Smart Policy is applied whenever there is evidence of foreign officials undermining the American justice system. I will not be silent when Saudi Arabia tries to cleanse its blood-stained hands, nor will I cease to hold Saudi officials accountable for the death of Fallon Smart and others like hers. To that end, I ask you to provide me with details about the implementation of the policy.”
Wyden has long worked since 2018 to expose a pattern of Saudi nationals committing violent crimes in the United States and evading U.S. justice with help from the Saudi government.
“In most of these cases, local law enforcement confiscated the passports of the accused criminals and set bail at thresholds the individuals were unlikely to pay themselves,” Wyden wrote, noting passage of his bill in 2019 to declassify an FBI report on Saudi assistance of fugitives that concluded the Saudis wouldn’t stop until the United States addresses Saudi Arabia about its lawlessness. “Yet, many of these individuals somehow made bail and quickly received the resources and travel documents necessary to board a plane and leave our country, only to resurface in Saudi Arabia later.
Wyden also noted he traveled last month to Saudi Arabia to raise these issues directly with Saudi government officials, and urging those Saudi officials to return to the United States all Saudi nationals accused of crimes so they may stand trial.
“I ask that you pursue this issue with the highest levels of leadership within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and formally press for the return of all Saudi nationals who evaded justice,” Wyden wrote. “Finally, I ask that you promptly declassify and make public any information about foreign officials engaging in the practice of helping foreign criminal suspects evade the U.S. justice system. As the declassification of the 2019 FBI report demonstrated, transparency is necessary if local judicial and law enforcement officials are to be notified of the threat and if the U.S. Government, in coordination with Congress, are to develop and implement policies to protect Americans and the rule of law.
In a second Wyden letter today, Wyden wrote President Trump to urge a full reset of the U.S.-Saudi Arabia relationship to protect the American people and safeguard U.S. interests.
In that letter, Wyden again cited the Fallon Smart Policy as well as the role of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud and Saudi government officials in the brutal slaying of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi along with the surveillance, detention, torture and killing of dissidents, journalists, women’s rights activists and foreign laborers.
“I understand that you are planning a visit to Saudi Arabia, and I urge you to seek accountability for Saudi abuses against our country, including its punitive economic actions that have undermined U.S. interests,” Wyden wrote Trump. “You must push for Saudi recognition of these actions. You must also seek retribution for these actions and refrain from handing out favors to the Saudis until they follow through with meaningful reform.”
The entire letter to Trump is here. The entire letter to Rubio is here.
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