U.S. President Donald Trump said the CIA is going to be speaking him Saturday about its conclusion that the Saudi prince ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
On Friday, the CIA reportedly said that after reviewing an array of evidence, it concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally ordered the killing.
One of the pieces of evidence included a taped phone call in which the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., the younger brother of the crown prince, told Khashoggi to go to the Saudi consulate to pick up his wedding documents and assured him that he would be safe, according to the Washington Post.
The Wall Street Journal also reported a U.S. official saying Khashoggi’s killing “would not and could not have happened” without Prince Mohammed’s approval, and that the CIA’s conclusions on the Khashoggi killing were based on a thorough understanding of how Saudi Arabia operates.
On Saturday, Trump was asked whether he had been briefed by the CIA in regards to its conclusion.
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“We haven’t been briefed yet. The CIA is going to be speaking to me today. As of this moment, we were told that he did not play a role. We are going to have to find out what they have to say,” Trump told reporters Saturday.
Khashoggi, a critic of the crown prince, was killed at the beginning of October at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he went to pick up documents he needed for his planned marriage.
The Saudi government gave changing explanations for Khashoggi’s disappearance before admitting the journalist died at the consulate due to an altercation.
On Oct. 24, Prince Mohammed called the death Khashoggi a “heinous” crime” that was “painful to all Saudis,” and that the perpetrators will be held accountable.
Although Trump administration officials have said Saudi Arabia should be held accountable for any involvement in Khashoggi’s death, the president has also stressed the importance of Washington’s ties with the country.
“We also have a great ally in Saudi Arabia, they give us a lot of jobs, they give us a lot of business, a lot of economic development,” Trump said Saturday. “And I’m president, I have to take a lot of things into consideration.”
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— With files from Global News’ Rahul Kalvapalle and Reuters