White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Friday that the United States Department of Justice's recent clarification that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is immune from lawsuit in US courts concerning the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi "has nothing to do with merits" of the Khashoggi case.
The crown prince is immune for as long he holds the title of the prime minister of Saudi Arabia, the DoJ explained, according to Jean-Pierre. "At the request of the Department of State," the DoJ informed a US federal district court about the crown prince's head of state immunity, Jean-Pierre noted.
The immunity determination is a legal one, she insisted, underlining that the relationship between the countries will not be affected by the DoJ's filing.