Trump Says Saudi Account of Khashoggi Killing Is ‘Worst Cover-Up’ in History

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Tuesday condemned Saudi Arabia’s account of the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi as “the worst cover-up ever,” and his administration warned for the first time that it would impose human rights sanctions on some of those who took part in the plot.

Mr. Trump’s criticism, and the sanctions announced by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, attested to the mounting pressure on the White House after Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, characterized the killing of Mr. Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul as premeditated and “savage.”

But the president still appeared to be playing for time, complaining about how the Saudis botched the crime rather than about who was behind it, and blacklisting what are likely to be Saudi operatives rather than decision makers like Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

“They had a very bad original concept, it was carried out poorly, and the cover-up was one of the worst in the history of cover-ups,” Mr. Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office.

“Very simple,” he continued, “Bad deal; should never have been thought of. Somebody really messed up. And they had the worst cover-up ever. And where it should have stopped is at the deal standpoint.”

“Whoever thought of that idea, I think, is in big trouble, and they should be in big trouble,” Mr. Trump said of the operation inside the Saudi Consulate, during which, Turkish officials say, Mr. Khashoggi was killed and dismembered with a bone saw.

The State Department said the United States would revoke visas for or put on a visa blacklist 21 Saudis it has identified as being involved in the operation. The department declined to release the names of those being punished, but Mr. Pompeo said at a news conference that the United States had identified suspects as coming from the royal court, the intelligence services, the Foreign Ministry and other ministries.

Among the 21 are presumably the 15 operatives named by Turkey as suspects, as well as officials in Saudi Arabia who were dismissed from their posts on Friday. Some of those are close to Prince Mohammed.

The United States could take additional action under the Magnitsky Act, named after a slain Russian lawyer and tax accountant, Sergei Magnitsky, which enables the United States to freeze badets and place travel bans on people found guilty of human rights abuses.

“These penalties will not be the last word on the matter from the United States,” Mr. Pompeo said to reporters on Tuesday at the State Department. “We’re making very clear that the United States does not tolerate this kind of ruthless action to silence Mr. Khashoggi, a journalist, through violence.”

Neither Mr. Pompeo nor Mr. Trump would say whether they believe Prince Mohammed was responsible for the killing. Mr. Trump said he would reserve final judgment until American officials, including the C.I.A. director, Gina Haspel, returned from Turkey in the next couple of days.

He said much the same thing last week after Mr. Pompeo made a fact-finding trip to Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Mr. Pompeo said on Tuesday that the United States was continuing to solicit information from other sources, including the Turkish intelligence services and the Saudis.

“Neither the president nor I am happy with this situation,” he said, though he added, “Our shared strategic interests with Saudi Arabia remain.”

“We will work with Congress,” Mr. Pompeo said. “I’ve spoken to our allies around the world. We want to make sure that everyone understands that the United States doesn’t believe this — that the killing of Jamal Khashoggi was — was anything other than a horrific act.

This month, 22 senators sent a bipartisan letter to Mr. Trump demanding that the executive branch look into the possibility of using the Magnitsky Act to impose economic sanctions on officials involved in the disappearance and death of Mr. Khashoggi, including officials at the highest levels in Saudi Arabia.

Some members of Congress have also been pressing Mr. Trump to end United States support for the civil war in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has conducted airstrikes that have killed dozens of civilians, including children, at a time.

The president reiterated that Congress should take the lead in imposing sanctions on the Saudis, though he cautioned lawmakers to remember the multibillion-dollar arms sales and other commercial ties that link Saudi Arabia and the United States.

“In terms of what we ultimately do,” Mr. Trump said, “I’m going to leave it very much — in conjunction with me — up to Congress.”

As he has before, Mr. Trump spoke of the need to protect a deal in which Saudi Arabia bought $110 billion worth of arms and made a total of $450 billion in investments in the United States — which he has claimed are the fruits of his alliance with the kingdom. But experts noted that the $110 billion figure is exaggerated while the $450 billion figure is fanciful.

Defense badysts have calculated only $14.5 billion in booked weapons sales, and the real number might actually be lower than that. The Saudis have not concluded a single major new arms deal since Mr. Trump took office, according to Bruce O. Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has studied the country since 1978.

The Saudis, he said, did announce one huge deal: a $15 billion agreement with Lockheed Martin to buy a Thaad missile defense system. But the Saudi Defense Ministry let a September deadline expire, leaving the deal’s future uncertain.

Analysts said there was no data to back up Mr. Trump’s claim of $450 billion in investments. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund has made big investments in the ride-hailing service Uber; the private equity firm Blackstone; and the SoftBank technology fund. But together, these investments are a fraction of $450 billion Mr. Trump claims.

The president warned, as he has in the past, that if tensions with Saudi Arabia jeopardize the arms sales, the Saudis could turn to Russia, China or France. Mr. Riedel said the United States held the leverage because of Saudi Arabia’s need for American-made spare parts to continue waging its war in Yemen.

“You can’t take a Russian radar system and put it on a Saudi F-15,” Mr. Riedel said.