The U.S. government has not reached a final position on the culpability for Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month, despite reports that the CIA had concluded that Khashoggi was killed on orders from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This has placed U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration at odds with the intelligence assessment.
Mr. Trump was briefed over the phone by CIA Director Gina Haspel and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday morning while he was aboard Air Force One on his way to California to tour sites hit by the wildfires.
Crown Prince’s role
The Washington Post had reported on Friday that it had been told by an unnamed official that the CIA had concluded that Prince Mohammed had ordered the killing of Khashoggi.
“They haven’t assessed anything yet. It’s too early,” Mr. Trump said in Malibu, California, late Saturday afternoon California time, adding, “It’s a horrible thing that took place, the killing of a journalist… we’ll be having a very full report over the next two days, probably Monday or Tuesday.”
“There remain numerous unanswered questions with respect to the murder of Mr. Khashoggi,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Saturday afternoon. “The State Department will continue to seek all relevant facts.”
The State Department had sanctioned 17 individuals on Thursday last week and the Saudi Public Prosecutor’s Office had said, on the same day, that it was indicting 11 people for the murder and seeking the death penalty for five of these.
Khashoggi disappeared after a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to obtain papers for his imminent marriage. The Saudi government repeatedly changed its story on what happened before admitting that he had been killed, allegedly after a quarrel, by Saudi agents who had gone rogue.
While the Saudi government has said the Crown Prince was unaware that a killing had been planned, the CIA’s conclusion that Prince Mohammed was involved is based on intercepted phone calls and a clandestine recording of Khashoggi’s fatal October 2 consulate visit provided by the Turkish government, The Washington Post reported.
Mr. Trump and other administration officials have repeatedly said that they want to punish those responsible for the murder but they have also avoided blaming the Crown Prince and showed resistance to taking a tough stand on Saudi Arabia, which is a U.S. ally and buyer of American arms. The President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is also a friend of the Prince Mohammed.
In a related development, Kirsten Fontenrose, a White House official who had pushed for strong action against Saudi Arabia, resigned on Friday evening, The New York Times first reported. The exact reasons for her departure remain unclear but The Times reported that she wanted a top adviser to Prince Mohammed, Saud al-Qahtani, added to the list of sanctioned individuals (his name was included).
