President Donald Trump insisted that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “knew nothing” about the killing of Washington Post opinion writer Jamal Khashoggi, despite U.S. intelligence agencies concluding otherwise.
The CIA assessment released in 2021 found that Saudi agents in Istanbul acted on bin Salman’s order when they killed and dismembered Khashoggi in 2018, who had written critically of the Saudi royal family.
Asked about those findings in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump downplayed the journalist’s killing, saying “things happen” and claiming bin Salman “knew nothing about it.”
His comments came as the Crown Prince began an elaborate two-day visit organized by Trump to showcase Saudi Arabia’s importance to the U.S., during which the President hopes to announce hundreds of billions of dollars in Saudi investments. It is bin Salman’s first visit to the U.S. capital since Khashoggi’s killing seven years ago.
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Trump berated the ABC News reporter who raised the question, calling it an embarrassment for his guest. “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or don’t like him, things happen, but he knew nothing about it,” Trump said while sitting next to Saudi Arabia’s de-facto leader. “We can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.”
The Crown Prince, however, chose to respond. Without mentioning Khashoggi by name, bin Salman said, “it’s painful and it’s a huge mistake—and we are doing our best that this doesn’t happen again.”
Bin Salman was also asked about anger from families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks who objected to his visit. Many of those…
