Remember when Joe Biden’s State Department granted Mohammed bin Salman immunity from lawsuits brought by the Khashoggi family over the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi? At the time three weeks ago, speculation arose that Biden wanted to smooth relations to get the Saudis to produce more oil.

Now it looks as though Biden greased the wheels for another deal entirely. Or so the Daily Mail and Arab News report this morning:

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed led mediation efforts that secured the release of two prisoners between the US and Russia, a joint statement issued by both countries’ foreign ministries said on Thursday.

“The ministries said the success of the mediation efforts was a reflection of the mutual and solid friendship between their two countries and the United States and Russia,” the statement said.

“They also highlighted the important role played by the leaderships of the two brotherly countries in promoting dialogue between all parties,” it added.

The Daily Mail notes that, while Biden offered thoughts and prayers for the Whelans, he never once mentioned Marc Fogel. Fogel got imprisoned in Russia for charges related to marijuana possession at roughly the same time as Griner. No one seems terribly interested in talking about his status,

Nor is the White House terribly interested in discussing the Saudis’ role in the Griner swap for Viktor “Merchant of Death” Bout:

Asked directly about the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince’s role in the negotiations, a senior administration official said: ‘In the course of getting to this happy result with respect to Brittney, and in the course of working to secure the release of Paul, as we continue to do, we have and I’m sure we’ll continue to lean on partners around the world to work this through with us, to give us their ideas, and to impress upon the Russians how important it is to us to resolve these sorts of cases.’

‘And we appreciate when those partners do help us. And I’ll leave it there.’

Reports that MBS helped broker the deal came two days after a US federal judge rejected a lawsuit against him and other Saudi officials over Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s violent death.

Interesting timing, eh? In case you wonder, the judge threw out the lawsuit explicitly on the sovereign immunity that Biden’s State Department recognized for the Crown Prince three weeks earlier:

The Biden administration declared in November that the official standing of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince should grant him immunity in lawsuits for his alleged role in the brutal killing of a U.S.-based journalist.

District of Columbia U.S. District Judge John D. Bates dismissed the suit on the grounds of sovereign immunity, an international legal concept that protects national leaders from litigation and criminal prosecution.

Bates maintained that despite the legal outcome, there remains “credible allegations of his involvement in Khashoggi’s murder.”

Rooted in international law, sovereign immunity protects states and their officials from some legal proceedings in other foreign states’ domestic courts. The State Department said upholding the concept helps ensure American leaders don’t have to worry about being hauled into foreign courts to face lawsuits in other countries.

The lawsuit likely wouldn’t have gotten far anyway, since neither the murder nor the conspiracy took place in the US. The jurisdictional issues would have been at least a difficult obstacle to overcome. However, the timing of this sequence makes it look as though the Biden administration not only traded a terrorist-supplying arms dealer for Griner but also ensured that a murderous head of state escaped any accountability.

Moreover, this makes the one-for-one deal look even more questionable if the immunity recognition is indeed linked to the swap. Trading Bout for Griner shouldn’t have required outside mediation — Bout’s value to Putin as an arms dealer is immense, especially so at the moment, and Griner’s value to Putin marginal at best. If MBS’ mediation was available, why not use it to press for a better deal — one that included Paul Whelan and Marc Fogel? Especially when MBS is getting a personal concession like this, one would expect a lot better deal than the one announced today.

Everyone’s happy that Griner is coming home. But it’s looking more and more strange that Biden couldn’t get more out of this deal, especially if MBS immunity was part of the package.