After Bashing 'Killer' Putin, Biden Defends Killer Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

US President Joe Biden defended his administration's decision to not impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, despite acknowledging that the royal was responsible for the murder of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

In an interview with ABC News aired in parts on Wednesday, Biden credited himself for releasing the US intelligence community's findings on the killing but said sanctioning bin Salman would have been unprecedented.

"I'm the guy that released the report," Biden said, referring to the assessment by the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) that was made public last month.

Former President Donald Trump had resisted legally binding calls by Congress to release the report, which concluded that the crown prince, known as MBS, approved the murder.

But Biden has refused to take measures to penalise bin Salman personally despite pressure from lawmakers, rights groups and press freedom advocates. Instead, the US administration expanded sanctions against the team that carried out the operation.

"We held accountable all the people in that organization - but not the crown prince, because we have never that I'm aware of, when we have an alliance with a country, gone to the acting head of state and punished that person and ostracised him," Biden said, according to a partial transcript released by ABC.