Trump administration's reported effort to 'barter' a US resident to convince Turkey to ramp down Khashoggi probe stuns foreign policy veterans

Christian Hartmann/Reuters

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday condemned President Donald Trump, characterizing him as an "authoritarian leader."

• National-security and foreign-policy veterans were floored by a bombshell report that the US weighed extraditing one of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's biggest enemies to get Turkey to ease up on its investigation into the killing of journalist of Jamal Khashoggi.
• Turkey is furious at the Saudi government for carrying out Khashoggi's murder at the kingdom's consulate in Turkey.
• The White House reportedly floated the idea of booting out Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Turkish cleric and legal US resident, in exchange for Ankara backing off of the Khashoggi inquiry.
• "This is the Trump administration seeking to barter away a US resident who has lived here legally for years," Ned Price, the former Senior Director of the National Security Council, told INSIDER.
• "If the White House seriously considered it, it shows to what lengths the [Jared] Kushner camp was willing to go to protect [Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman] in Riyadh," said another foreign-policy expert.

Foreign policy veterans were floored Thursday following a bombshell report that the White House considered extraditing one of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's top enemies to get Ankara to back off the investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

NBC News reported that the White House is looking for legal ways to boot out Fethullah Gulen - an exiled Turkish cleric whom Erdogan accuses of orchestrating a failed coup against him in 2016 - in exchange for Turkey easing pressure on the Saudi government, which is responsible for Khashoggi's killing.

Gulen is a legal US resident and a green card holder who has been living in Pennsylvania since the late 1990s.

When the White House first floated the idea of extraditing Gulen, career officials at top federal agencies thought it was a joke but became "furious" when they learned it was a serious request, according to NBC News.

Foreign policy veterans were similarly shocked.

Ned Price, the former Senior Director of the National Security Council under President Barack Obama, said the reported move is "hugely significant."

"This is the Trump administration seeking to barter away a US resident who has lived here legally for years," Price told INSIDER.

Diplomatic, law enforcement, and immigration officials during the Obama administration determined that Turkey's case for Gulen's extradition did not meet the required threshold.

Price said it now seems "that the Trump White House, in order to make life easier for the Saudi Crown Prince, is seeking to skirt the rule of law by pressuring officials to return Gulen to Turkey even without a sufficient evidentiary basis."

Randa Slim, director of conflict resolution at the Middle East Institute, echoed that view.

"The question to ask is can the Trump administration legally do it?" Slim told INSIDER, pointing to Gulen's status as a legal resident as a potential impediment for the White House.

"If the White House seriously considered it, it shows to what lengths the [Jared] Kushner camp was willing to go to protect their young protege in Riyadh," she added.

Slim was referring to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who once reportedly bragged that he had Kushner, a senior White House adviser, "in his pocket." The crown prince is largely believed to have played a key role in carrying out the Khashoggi killing last month, but the Saudi government denies this, and Trump has largely accepted this narrative.

Riyadh's story on Khashoggi's slaying has shifted several times over the last month amid increased international pressure to bring his killers to justice. Though the Saudi government initially denied it had any role in the killing, on Thursday, the Saudi public prosecutor's office said 11 people had been indicted in connection to Khashoggi's death and that the death penalty had been requested for five of them.

The public prosecutor added that 21 people had been detained overall. Riyadh said last month that it detained 18 people.

The White House's reported effort to extradite Gulen sheds light on US President Donald Trump's attempt to ease rising tensions with Turkey - which is furious over the fact that Saudi officials killed Khashoggi at the kingdom's consulate in Turkey - while providing some cover to the crown prince, with whom Trump has repeatedly touted a close alliance.

Trump has also repeatedly touted America's strong strategic partnership with the Saudis, as well as the economic benefits of US arms sales to the kingdom.

Erdogan has called for Gulen's extradition for years, saying after the 2016 coup attempt that Turkey had never turned back any extradition request for "terrorists" by the United States.

A Turkish official told NBC News that the government does not link its concerns about the Khashoggi murder with Gulen's extradition case.

"We definitely see no connection between the two," the official said. "We want to see action on the end of the United States in terms of the extradition of Gulen. And we're going to continue our investigation on behalf of the Khashoggi case."