NGO urges investigation of Trump's business dealings with Saudi's Mohammed Bin Salman

The human rights NGO Democracy in the Arab World Now (DAWN) is urging the US government to investigate circumstances related to former President Donald Trump's business dealings with Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman.

Based on inadvertently revealed court proceedings, the crown prince has paid Trump millions of dollars over the past two years, the NGO noted in a public statement released Tuesday. The payments allegedly came from Saudi Arabia's public investment fund via LIV Golf, a golf club majority-owned by the Saudi crown prince, known as MBS, to Trump Golf Resorts.

LIV Golf is a newly established golf franchise that has Trump-owned golf resorts unknown millions to hold its events there, with Trump publicly supporting the new league, according to DAWN.

"The revelation that a fund controlled by Crown Prince MBS actually owns almost all of LIV Golf means that MBS has been paying Donald Trump unknown millions for the past two years, via their mutual corporate covers," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of DAWN. 

"The national security implications of payments from a grotesquely abusive foreign dictator to a president of the United States who provided extraordinary favours to him are as dangerous as they are shocking," Whitson added. 

These revelations underscore the need for stronger legislation against conflicts of interest between US public officials during and in the years immediately after their time in office, which could pose national security risks, the NGO said.

"The absence of strong conflict of interest laws has created a dangerous and expanding threat to US national security, as former US officials – even a former president – increasingly race to monetize their work for our government into lucrative contracts with foreign governments," said Whitson. "Given that Trump is also planning to run again for president, his business ties to Mohamed bin Salman are a national security emergency."