It's clear that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his inner circle are not students of English history. If I were in MBS's sandals, with the wolves circling ever more menacingly, I'm pretty sure I'd be citing what you might call the King Henry II defense.
As related here by the always-reliable Wikipedia, Henry was having trouble with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. The King supposedly uttered the fateful words "Will no-one rid me of this turbulent priest"? Four knights promptly set sail from Normandy to Canterbury, confronted Becket in the Cathedral and murdered him.
Henry was vilified and forced into public acts of expiation but kept his throne. MBS has probably left it too late, but if this defense -- basically, "Gee, I was just venting! I never meant for this to happen!" -- had been adopted earlier, it might well have worked. Especially as there's a guy in the White House that would dearly love to believe it.
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