Intel: Democrats push Trump administration to crack down on Saudi prince

Emboldened by the latest United Nations report implicating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in hacking Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ phone, Democrats are pushing the Donald Trump administration to toughen up on the Saudi heir.

Foreign Relations Committee top Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., pressed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the UN report in a letter earlier this week, asking whether the State Department is aware of Saudi efforts to hack US government officials. His letter also contained a veiled criticism of Israel’s export control policies by asking whether the State Department is working with “allies and partners” to stop “the sale of spyware to the Saudi government.” (Last week’s UN report found that the Pegasus spyware made by Israel’s NSO Group was “most likely” used in the crown prince’s alleged hack on Bezos’ phone.)

And on Wednesday the top Democrat on the Middle East panel, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., penned a letter asking the US intelligence community and the FBI to launch a probe into the crown prince’s alleged hacking.

Why it matters: Bezos owns The Washington Post and the crown prince allegedly hacked the billionaire’s phone in May 2018 — roughly the same time that the Saudis allegedly hacked associates of the newspaper's columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The UN has found “credible evidence” that bin Salman was involved in Khashoggi’s October 2018 murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.