Evidence directly implicating Saudi Arabia’s leadership in the torture and killing of Khashoggi continues to emerge.<\/b>
\nAs a new flurry of evidence from the Turkish government established direct ties between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and those who allegedly carried out the gruesome murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, US President Donald Trump continued \u201c groveling \u201d at the feet of the murderous kingdom Tuesday night by claiming that the Saudis have been deemed \u201cguilty until proven innocent\u201d just like newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was credibly accused of sexual assault.
\u201cI think we have to find out what happened first,\u201d Trump told the Associated Press in an interview just hours after Al Jazeera reported more \u201cshocking\u201d details of Khashoggi\u2019s torture and assassination inside Saudi Arabia\u2019s Turkish embassy. \u201cHere we go again with, you know, you\u2019re guilty until proven innocent. I don\u2019t like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I\u2019m concerned.\u201d
Completely ignoring the rapidly growing body of evidence implicating the Saudis in Khashoggi\u2019s murder, Trump went on to say that King Salaman \u201cjust sounded to me like he felt like he did not do it.\u201d
\u201cI spoke to the crown prince, so you have that. He said he and his father knew nothing about it. And that was very important,\u201d Trump continued. \u201cAnd I spoke to him with [Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo there. And the crown prince. I spoke to the king yesterday, the crown prince, today wanting to know what was going on, what was happening, and he said very strongly that he and his father knew nothing about it.\u201d
Responding to Trump\u2019s invocation of the \u201c Kavanaugh defense \u201d on behalf of the Saudi regime \u2014 which came shortly after the president dutifully echoed the kingdom\u2019s denials on Twitter \u2014 Jeet Heer of the New Republicquipped that \u201cTrump is right in thinking that Brett Kavanaugh and Mohammed bin Salman are likely equally innocent.\u201d
Despite Trump\u2019s best efforts to run interference for the Saudis, evidence directly implicating the kingdom\u2019s leadership in the torture and killing of Khashoggi two weeks ago in Istanbul continued to emerge Tuesday night, when the New York Times \u201d confirmed independently that at least nine of 15 suspects identified by Turkish authorities worked for the Saudi security services, military or other government ministries.\u201d
\u201cOne of the suspects identified by Turkey in the disappearance of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was a frequent companion of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman \u2014 seen disembarking from airplanes with him in Paris and Madrid and photographed standing guard during his visits this year to Houston, Boston, and the United Nations,\u201d the Times reported. \u201cThree others are linked by witnesses and other records to the Saudi crown prince\u2019s security detail.\u201d
In its report, the Times published photographs of diplomat Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb and others allegedly involved in Khashoggi\u2019s murder.
MSNBC\u2019s Rachel Maddow featured the photos from the Times report in a segment Tuesday night:
\u201cThere is not a doubt in my mind that US intelligence knows exactly what the Saudis did to Jamal Khashoggi,\u201d Ploughshares Fund president Joe Cirincione wrote on Twitter in response to the Times report. \u201cTrump is covering for MbS, lying consistently and repeatedly about his involvement. Pompeo\u2019s smile-filled meetings are a disgrace.\u201d
Jake Johnson is a staff writer for Common Dreams. Follow him on Twitter: @johnsonjakep.
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