WASHINGTON -- Four Saudis who participated in the 2018 killing of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi received paramilitary training in the United States the previous year under a contract approved by the State Department, according to documents and people familiar with the arrangement.
The instruction occurred as the secret unit responsible for Khashoggi's killing was beginning an extensive campaign of kidnapping, detention and torture of Saudi citizens ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's unofficial ruler.
The training was provided by the Arkansas-based security company Tier 1 Group, which is owned by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. The company says the training -- including "safe marksmanship" and "countering an attack" -- was defensive in nature and devised to better protect Saudi leaders. One person familiar with the training said it also included work in surveillance and close-quarters battle.
There is no evidence that the American officials who approved the training or Tier 1 Group executives knew that the Saudis were involved in the crackdown inside Saudi Arabia.
The State Department initially granted a license for the paramilitary training of the Saudi Royal Guard to Tier 1 Group starting in 2014, during the Obama administration. The training continued during at least the first year of former President Donald Trump's term.
Louis Bremer, a senior executive of Cerberus, Tier 1 Group's parent company, confirmed his company's role in the training last year in written answers to questions from lawmakers as part of his nomination for a top Pentagon job during the Trump administration.
The administration does not appear to have sent the document to Congress before withdrawing Bremer's nomination; lawmakers never received answers to their questions.
In the document, which Bremer provided to The New York Times, he said that four members of the team involved in Khashoggi's killing had received Tier 1 Group training in 2017, and two of them had participated in a previous iteration of the training, which went from October 2014 until January 2015.
"The training provided was unrelated to their subsequent heinous acts," Bremer said in his responses.
He said that a March 2019 review by Tier 1 Group "uncovered no wrongdoing by the company and confirmed that the established curriculum training was unrelated to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi."
Bremer said that the State Department, "in collaboration with other U.S. departments and agencies," is responsible for vetting the foreign forces trained on U.S. soil. "All foreign personnel trained by [Tier 1 Group] are cleared by the U.S. government for entry into the United States before commencement of training."
In a statement, Bremer said that the training was "protective in nature" and that the company conducted no further training of Saudis after December 2017.
"[Tier 1 Group] management, the board and I stand firmly with the U.S. government, the American people and the international community in condemning the horrific murder of Jamal Khashoggi," he said.
A 2019 column by David Ignatius of The Washington Post first reported that members of the Khashoggi kill team had received training in the United States. He wrote that the CIA had "cautioned other government agencies" that some special-operations training may have been conducted by Tier 1 Group under a State Department license.
The issue was central to Bremer's confirmation hearing and the written questions from senators, asking him what role, if any, Tier 1 Group had in training Saudis who had participated in the Khashoggi operation.
A State Department spokesman declined to confirm whether it awarded licenses to Tier 1 Group for the Saudi training.
"This administration insists on responsible use of U.S. origin defense equipment and training by our allies and partners, and considers appropriate responses if violations occur," said the spokesman, Ned Price. "Saudi Arabia faces significant threats to its territory, and we are committed to working together to help Riyadh strengthen its defenses."
A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not comment.
It is unclear which members of the team involved in Khashoggi's killing participated in the Tier 1 Group training. Seven members of the team belonged to an elite unit charged with protecting Crown Prince Mohammed, according to a U.S. intelligence report about the assassination declassified in February.
Khashoggi, a columnist for The Post, was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, his body dismembered using a bone saw. The assassination brought widespread condemnation on Crown Prince Mohammed, who has publicly denied any knowledge of the operation.
Eight defendants were sentenced to up to two decades in prison last year, but human-rights advocates criticized the punishments as aimed at lower-level agents while sparing their leaders.
The CIA concluded that the prince directed the operation, but Trump said that the evidence was inconclusive and that America's diplomatic and economic relationship with the kingdom took priority. After President Joe Biden took office and debated the issue with his advisers before the release of the declassified intelligence report, his administration announced sanctions on Saudis involved in the killing, including members of the elite unit who protect Mohammed bin Salman, but chose not to directly punish the crown prince.
Under federal rules that restrict foreign sales of U.S. arms and military expertise, Tier 1 Group was required to apply for licenses to train the foreign operatives. Those license applications were examined by State Department officials -- who were processing tens of thousands of licenses per year -- and approved.
The approval would have allowed members of the Saudi Royal Guard to enter the United States on visas processed by the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh.