President Trump spoke with CIA Director Gina Haspel, as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during his flight to California on Saturday, but it was not made clear what the officials said.
President Trump on Saturday spoke with CIA Director Gina Haspel after saying he would receive a briefing about the agency’s finding that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Washington Post first reported Friday that the CIA had assessed with high confidence the Saudi leader’s role, based on multiple sources of intelligence.
“We haven’t been briefed yet,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before leaving to survey damage from wildfires in California.
But the president had already been shown evidence of the prince’s alleged involvement in the killing, and privately he remains skeptical, Trump aides said. He has also looked for ways to avoid pinning the blame on Mohammed, the aides said.
Trump spoke with Haspel and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his flight, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One. It was not immediately clear what the officials said, and the president made no immediate comments after landing.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert issued a statement Saturday that did not directly address the CIA’s findings about Mohammed or mention him.
“Recent reports indicating that the U. S. government has made a final conclusion are inaccurate,” she said. “There remain numerous unanswered questions with respect to the murder of Mr. Khashoggi. The State Department will continue to seek all relevant facts. In the meantime, we will continue to consult Congress, and work with other nations to hold accountable those involved in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.”
The Post and other media outlets have reported on the CIA’s assessment but have not said the U. S. government reached a conclusion about what happened to Khashoggi.
The president’s skepticism has put him at odds with the findings of the CIA and senior intelligence officials.
Haspel and John Bolton, the national security adviser, have briefed Trump on the intelligence community’s findings, with Haspel offering the various pieces of evidence that show lieutenants of MBS – as the crown prince is known – were directly involved, according to people familiar with the matter.
In conversations with his intelligence and national security advisers, the president has seized on the question of whether evidence shows that Mohammed “ordered” Khashoggi’s death, asserting that his advisers haven’t offered him definitive proof. He has also asked CIA and State Department officials where Khashoggi’s body is and has grown frustrated that the journalist’s remains haven’t been found.
Khashoggi was a contributing columnist to The Washington Post.
Referring to the crown prince, Trump told reporters Saturday, “As of this moment, we were told that he did not play a role, we’re gonna have to find out what they say.”
The president didn’t specify who had said Mohammed had played no role.
The CIA did not respond to a request for comment.
The Saudis have offered multiple and contradictory explanations for what happened to Khashoggi since he stepped inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage.
Once inside, Khashoggi was set upon by a team of Saudi agents who had flown to Istanbul to kill him, according to intelligence assessments by the U. S. and European governments. The team is believed to have dismembered Khashoggi and disposed of his remains.
The CIA analyzed audio recording from inside the consulate, which were provided by the Turkish government, as well as intercepted phone calls, according to people familiar with the matter. One of those calls was placed by a member of the hit team from inside the consulate to a senior aide to Mohammed, informing him that the killing had taken place, according to people familiar with the call.
The Saudi government has insisted that the prince knew nothing of the operation, which it has blamed on rogue actors who went beyond their authority in a mission meant to bring Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi had written critically of Mohammed’s policy and was living in a self-imposed exile in Virginia out of concerns for his safety in his native country.
“The claims in this purported assessment are false,” Fatimah Baeshen, a spokeswoman for the Saudi embassy in Washington, said of the CIA findings. “We have and continue to hear various theories without seeing the primary basis for these speculations.”
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