A senior aide to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who US prosecutors allege masterminded a scheme to infiltrate Twitter and identify government critics, is expected to accompany the royal on his upcoming visit to the United States.
Bader al-Asaker, who leads the crown prince’s private office, was identified in US court documents as directing a conspiracy between 2014 and 2015 to plant insiders within the social media platform. While never formally charged, a US government attorney stated in 2022 that al-Asaker led efforts to recruit a “mole” who could extract sensitive user data for Saudi authorities.
The operation reportedly led to the imprisonment of at least one Saudi national, Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, who received a 20-year sentence for operating an anonymous satirical account mocking Riyadh’s policies. The case exemplifies broader concerns about transnational repression tactics employed against critics of the Saudi leadership abroad.
Al-Asaker’s planned travel comes despite his involvement being detailed in a superseding indictment that describes him meeting with two co-conspirators during an official 2015 Washington delegation. Those individuals, Ali Alzabarah and Ahmed Almutairi, now appear on the FBI’s most-wanted list after fleeing to Saudi Arabia, while a third accomplice was convicted for acting as an unregistered Saudi agent.
The aide also faces separate allegations in a US civil case involving former intelligence official Saad Aljabri, who claims Saudi authorities plotted his assassination. Aljabri’s legal team contends that al-Asaker and another senior aide directed efforts to locate and kill him on American soil, though al-Asaker’s representatives deny these claims.
The crown prince’s visit marks his first US trip in seven years and occurs under legal immunity protections granted since his 2022 appointment as prime minister. This status previously led to the dismissal of lawsuits against him, including one related to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which US intelligence concluded he authorized.
