Ex-Trump Adviser on Fox: Washington Post Has ‘Culpability’ For Khashoggi’s Death

Former Donald Trump adviser Christian Whiton suggested it’s the Washington Post‘s own fault that their contributor, Jamal Khashoggi, was murdered by the Saudis.

On Friday, Whiton appeared on Fox News for a discussion in which he defended Trump’s decision not to punish the Saudi Royal Family — despite the CIA’s “high confidence” findings that they orchestrated the Khashoggi hit-job. Whiton said Khashoggi was not a journalist because he contributed to the Post‘s Global Opinion column division, and he also suggested that Khashoggi was a Saudi government stooge before he became a critic of the royal family.

“He wasn’t a reporter, he was an opinion writer and an analyst. What got him killed frankly was putting out, he was on the take from the Saudi government, he was eating at the trough…”

Host Julie Banderas interjected to note that Khashoggi was critical of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who supposedly ordered Khashoggi to be killed. From there, Whiton suggested that the Post allowed Khashoggi to die by releasing his content.

“The Washington Post…has some culpability here, they put out his stuff. He put out articles like how great the Muslim Brotherhood is and how the U.S. should embrace the Muslim Brotherhood. The Post posted it not just in English, but in Arabic, and that put him in harm’s way.”

Whiton continued to say that the CIA did “huge disservice” to Trump and Congress on this this matter, so Congress should, in response, “put the CIA back in its box.”

It’s worth noting that, as Business Insider’s John Haltiwanger points out, Khashoggi was banned from writing in his native country after criticizing Trump.

This is ridiculous. Khashoggi was barred from writing in KSA by the royal family after he was critical of President Trump. He went into self-imposed exile b/c of it. Saying WaPo put him in danger because he wrote nuanced articles on the Muslim Brotherhood is egregious. https://t.co/dxczwNfQfK

— John Haltiwanger (@jchaltiwanger) November 23, 2018

Watch above, via Fox News.

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