Outgoing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had “no role” in the decision to drop assault charges brought against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security detail following a brawl in Washington, D.C., according to the State Department’s top spokeswoman.
“The department had no role in the decision to drop those charges,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters Thursday. “This is completely a Department of Justice decision.”
Erdogan enraged U.S. officials in May when he watched as members of his security detail attacked protesters outside the Turkish embassy to the United States. Turkish officials refused to extradite the 19 individuals charged in the attack, another burden on a NATO relationship strained by foreign policy and human rights issues. The decision to drop the charges came in February, one day before Tillerson traveled to Turkey for meetings with Erdogan.
“I am told that the secretary did not discuss this issue with President Erdogan in any type of a quid pro quo,” Nauert emphasized. “The secretary was certainly aware of it and noted that it was just an example of how our judicial system works here and that it was a coincidence in timing. He went on to talk about — apparently, I’m told — that courts operate free of political influence.”
U.S. officials were outraged by the incident at the time. “This is the United States of America,” Senate Armed Services chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., said after the assault. “We do not do this here. There is no excuse for this kind of thuggish behavior.”
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., dubbed it “an attack on American sovereignty” done for political purposes. “Erdogan believes that this helps him politically back in Turkey,” Sherman said. “We have to demonstrate to the world that aggression on American soil is not going to pay off.”
Tillerson’s team subsequently barred Erdogan from purchasing weapons for his security detail from an American manufacturer, a deal that required a license from the State Department. The issue was an irritant for a U.S.-Turkey relationship marred by Erdogan’s authoritarian turn, his suspicion of American support for a failed coup attempt in 2015, and deep disagreements about how to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria that have seen Erdogan cultivate a newly-close relationship with Russia.
The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. officials said no one pressured prosecutors to drop charges for political reasons. Instead, U.S. officials and an attorney cited in the report said the decisions were based on misidentified suspects and failure to obtain sufficient evidence against other individuals.
And Tillerson didn’t use it to gain any concessions when he met Erdogan, according to Nauert. “I am told the answer to that is unequivocally ‘no,’” she said.
