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"It seems very sad to me," said the president to the question whether Khashoggi is dead.
Asked about the consequences for Saudi Arabia if she was involved in her assassination, Trump said, "Well, it will have to be severe, I mean it's bad, it's bad. what's going on OK? "
Although Trump said he was still waiting for the results of the Saudi and Turkish investigations before presenting his final assessment of the situation, Mnuchin's withdrawal suggests that Washington would have enough information to incriminate Saudi Arabia.
UK Trade Secretary Liam Fox, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and his Dutch counterpart Wopke Hoekstra also withdrew from the conference.
CEOs of three major banks had already announced their withdrawal. Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, also canceled her participation. G7 foreign ministers on Tuesday called officials accountable.
Bipartisan groups of US lawmakers began to support international demands for an independent investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance and called on Trump, who extolled the "total denial" of the Crown Prince, to reveal his personal financial ties with the Saudi Arabia.
Trump's loyalty to Riyadh has become increasingly difficult to justify as the evidence linking Khashoggi's death to people with ties to the highest levels of the Saudi government has multiplied.
The Turkish authorities "knew in a few hours"
Turkish intelligence services went to the airport in Istanbul, where a Saudi private plane was waiting to take off, to determine whether he had been kidnapped or whether his body had been transported out of the country . They found nothing suspicious and the flight in question left around 11 pm. local hour.
The Turkish authorities now claim that the 15 Saudi nationals who arrived in Istanbul on 2 October were close to Khashoggi's death. At least some of them seem to have high level relations within the Saudi government.
According to Turkish media, Khashoggi was reportedly tortured and later murdered shortly after entering the consulate. Turkish officials told CNN that his body had been dismembered.
The source said Mutreb was perfectly aware of the "plot" of the operation.
Several US officials told CNN that any operation involving members of the Crown Prince's restricted circle could not have happened without his knowledge.
The Saudi position could change
Sources told CNN that the kingdom was preparing a report acknowledging that Khashoggi had died at the consulate during an interrogation that had gone wrong. The sources said the interrogation aimed to lead to his forced return to Saudi Arabia.
One source said the report would likely conclude that the operation was carried out without authorization and transparency and that those involved would be held responsible.
However, any claim by Saudi Arabia that Khashoggi died during a fact-finding investigation and kidnapping carried out by dishonest agents is contradicted by the increase in evidence revealed by the Turkish authorities.
Images of security cameras meant to show the movements of Mutreb, one of the 15 Saudis believed to be related to Khashoggi's alleged death, were published Thursday by a Turkish newspaper.
The four images, which the pro-government Sabah newspaper claimed to have obtained from Turkish security sources, were shown in Mutreb on October 2 in Istanbul.
Mutreb, who was the first secretary of the Saudi embassy in London and has been described as a colonel in the Saudi intelligence service, is closely linked to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. "He was seconded to an elite protection brigade within the Royal Guard to serve as a personal security force of the [the crown prince], "a Saudi source told CNN.
Mutreb appeared on photographs alongside bin Salman during the Crown Prince's tour to the United States earlier this year.
Turkish officials also provided CNN with passport scans of seven other men who they suspected had been part of the Saudi team. The passport scanners were taken on the day of Khashoggi's disappearance.
One of the passport scanners seems to belong to Salah Muhammad al-Tubaiqi (spelled Salah Mohammed A Tubaigy in the document), listed as head of forensic medicine at the Saudi Ministry of the Interior.
Muhammad Saad al-Zahrani, who appeared on Saudi public television alongside bin Salman, is another member of the group identified by the official Turkish media and appearing in the passport scans. His name is spelled Mohammed Saad Alzahrani in the scanned document.
CNN's Tim Lister reported from Ankara and Gul Tuysuz of Istanbul, while Bard Wilkinson wrote from Hong Kong.
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