Donald Trump says CIA ‘didn't conclude’ that Saudi prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s death – it’s just their feeling
- Asked who was responsible for Jamal Khashoggi’s death, Trump said ‘maybe the world … because the world’s a very, very vicious place’
Donald Trump ranged himself against his own intelligence community on Thursday, disputing that the CIA had “concluded” that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was responsible for the death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The president spoke a week after The Washington Post first reported that the agency had assessed that the Saudi crown prince did order the murder.
Khashoggi, a Saudi national, US resident and Washington Post columnist, went missing after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. He is believed to have been killed and dismembered. His body has not been found.
Crown Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, has denied any involvement or knowledge of the murder. After offering numerous contradictory explanations, Riyadh said last week that Khashoggi was killed and his body dismembered when “negotiations” to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia failed.
“They didn’t conclude,” Trump insisted, when asked about the CIA report speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
