At some point, did our headlines start getting cranked out by the Surreal-O-Tron?
National Enquirer Publisher Asked DOJ If It Should Register As Saudi Agent
Print that sucker out and mail it to your 2009 self.
“Asking for a friend”?
Wow. So Bezos was likely set up by the girlfriend on behalf of Saudis who can’t kill him at an embassy in Istanbul but want to get him another way?
Clearly there is a LOT underneath that log… Hope Bezos doesn’t plan on visiting any Saudi Consulates in the near future.
I’m so lost. What do the Saudis have against Bezos? Is it just because Kashoggi worked for the Post?
“And the hits just keep on comin!”
Your OneWordAnswer™: Yes.
Thank you - two word answer. 
The DOJ decided that American Media’s activities did not qualify it as a foreign agent under FARA.
Or longer one, it’s that the WaPo won’t shut up about Khashoggi, and thought they could shut down the whole thing by blackmailing Bezos.
First step would have been to get him to sign, and make the statement about politics. If he had signed, that would indicate that he was conducive to being blackmailed, and they would then use the same blackmail to lean on him to get his paper to stop publishing.
Not that it would have worked, but repressive regimes don’t really have the appreciation of an independent Fourth Estate…
There are so many people who are, through various circumstances included in Trump’s “circle”, at risk.
Who ever thought Trump’s employment plans included the Lawyers, Assasins, Liars and Thieves Full Employment Act.
I’m trying to come up with a pun involving “Mr. Bone Saw” and “boner,” but I’m not sure this stuff is actually funny.
I realize that there is some extremely stiff competition but this whole saga may well take the cake as the most bizarre political scandal of the trump era — if not my lifetime.
If National Enquirer was covering the National Enquirer:
MAJOR NEWSPAPER LINKED TO FOREIGN GOVERNMENT
SPIES TARGET BILLIONAIRE PHILANDERER
POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS TO POTUS
FEDS INVESTIGATING LEAKED NUDES
…I see what you did there…
The Saudi government would prefer to have the Washington Post stop drawing attention to the fact that the Saudi government ordered and carried out the murder of an American journalist.
Yes, but more specifically because during the evolving he’s fine–>he’s lost–>he died by accident–>whoops we actually murdered him narrative, the Washington Post did their utmost to keep the story in the headlines. It probably never occurred to M.B.S. that The Post did so because the murder was an appalling atrocity, not because its owner runs it as his personal vengeance apparatus (seriously, leaving aside any criticism of Bezos, has anyone seen evidence he’s anything but the hands-off owner he claims to be? I haven’t).
Bin Salman is exactly that petty.
I do appreciate the longer explanation too.
They don’t get the fourth estate, like Putin misread the American people fundamentally, except for a small minority of us.