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President Trump said Saturday that he would talk to the CIA about his discovery that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Washington Post first reported on Friday that the CIA had assessed with great confidence that the Saudi leader had ordered the assassination, based on several sources of intelligence.
"We have not been informed yet. The CIA will talk to me today, "Trump told the press about the White House's southern lawn before leaving to investigate the damage caused by the California wildfires.
But the president has already received evidence of the alleged involvement of the prince in the murder and, privately, he remains skeptical, said Trump's advisers. He also looked for ways to avoid blaming Mohammed, said the assistants.
[CIA concludes Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination]
The president's latest comments have put him at odds with the findings of the CIA and senior intelligence officials.
Gina Haspel, Director of the CIA, and John Bolton, National Security Advisor, briefed Trump on the findings of the intelligence community. Haspel presented various evidence showing that MBS lieutenants – as the Crown Prince calls him – were directly involved, according to people familiar with the subject.
In conversations with his intelligence and national security advisers, the president questioned whether the evidence shows that Muhammad "ordered" Khashoggi's death, saying that his advisers had not provided him with any information. definitive proofs. He also asked officials of the CIA and the State Department where Khashoggi's body was and was frustrated that the journalist's remains were not found.
Khashoggi has contributed to The Post's The Global Opinion section.
Referring to the Crown Prince, Trump told reporters Saturday: "At that time, we were told that he was not playing a role, we will have to find out what they are saying."
The president did not specify who said that Mohammed played no role.
The CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But in the White House, there is little doubt that Mohammed was behind the murder.
"This is a situation in which everyone knows what happened," said a counselor who often talks with Trump. This person stated that Trump had repeatedly criticized the way Mohammed had handled the situation and stated that it was clear that they were concealing facts.
The Saudis have offered multiple contradictory explanations about what happened to Khashoggi since entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to obtain documents regarding his upcoming marriage.
Once inside, Khashoggi was attacked by a team of Saudi agents who had gone to Istanbul to kill him, according to information provided by the US and European governments. The team reportedly dismembered Khashoggi and got rid of his remains.
The CIA has analyzed audio recordings recorded inside the consulate, provided by the Turkish government, as well as intercepted phone calls, according to people close to the case. One of these calls was placed by a member of the decision-making team from inside the consulate to a senior assistant to Mohammed, informing him that the killing had occurred, according to people close to the call.
The Saudi government insisted that the prince knew nothing about the operation, that he blamed rogue actors who went beyond their authority as part of a mission to bring Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi had criticized Mohammed's policy and lived in a self-imposed exile in Virginia, concerned for his safety in his homeland.
"The claims contained in this purported assessment are false," said Fatimah Baeshen, spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC, regarding the CIA's findings. "We have and continue to hear various theories without seeing the main basis of these speculations."
[Saudi Arabia distances crown prince from killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi]
For more than a month, Trump has been trying to reconcile his interests with the Saudi government and the growing pressure from Congress and the world to punish the Saudi regime. Trump told his aides that he wanted Mohammed to stay in power and that he saw the Saudis as the best strategic control over Iran and as a vital source of oil. Mohammed has close relations with Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior advisor, who helps guide the administration's strategy in the Middle East.
Earlier this week, the Saudi prosecutor admitted that a team of Saudi agents had killed Khashoggi, but he claimed that they had only been sent to bring him back to Saudi Arabia. The prosecutor has laid charges against 11 people that he described as part of a fraudulent operation. He said he would seek the death penalty for five of the people involved.
The Treasury Department also announced this week that it would freeze the assets of 17 Saudis and prohibit businesses from doing business with them.
Trump has accused the Saudi government of trying to conceal his role. But he sought ways to avoid blaming Mohammed, aides and advisers said. He continually thought of scenarios in which Mohammed would not have known what his subordinates were doing, said a counselor.
"It's possible that this happened without his knowledge," Trump said in an interview last month with The Washington Post. "And now, they are trying to clean up a mess."
This also contradicts the findings of the CIA. The agency determined that, because Muhammad exercised absolute authority over the kingdom, it was inconceivable that an operation of such magnitude, involving 15 agents traveling around the world, aboard A government aircraft, could have been carried out without the knowledge of the prince and without his permission, according to familiar people. the conclusions of the agency.
In addition, several members of the strike team can be directly linked to Mohammed. Some worked on his security details, and others traveled to the United States at the same time as the Prince or other senior Saudi officials, passport archives, and other public exhibits.
Trump made it clear to the European allies that he did not want a joint response to the murder, even as pressure mounted for the Saudi regime to be held responsible, according to a diplomat informed of the appeals.
The counselor who spoke to Trump said, "If the president succeeds, he will remain entirely outside the Middle East and all the problems. This is a problem he wants to solve.
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