The notion that holding a Saudi prince liable for a murder he caused to be committed would blow up the relationship with Saudi Arabia is preposterous. First and foremost it misses the fact that they need us more than we need them.
Secondly, other countries will act against him too. If we conducted normal, values-based diplomacy and place multilateral pressure on them to punish him or remove him from office, then again, they would ultimately not see this in a US v. KSA light.
Pressure of course, would also go up on them and, at the same time, we would send a message to other regimes to honor the rule of law and that there is a high price to pay for harming the residents fo the United States. In fact, capitulating to the criminals in that regime...
actually is a sign of weakness likely to lead to future abuses and crimes against Americans. It makes us look weak. It undercuts our stance v. future such crimes and as a champion of the rule of law. In other words, the Trump position is spineless and hurts us on many levels.
