The many times Trump has promoted the Saudi crown prince’s Khashoggi denials
By Daniel Dale, CNN
(CNN) — After a reporter reminded Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House on Tuesday that “US intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist,” Saudi dissident and Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi, President Donald Trump stepped in to describe Khashoggi as “somebody that was extremely controversial” and a person “a lot of people didn’t like.”
Then Trump rejected the US intelligence finding, claiming that the crown prince had been unaware of the 2018 killing of the prominent critic by a team of Saudi operatives at a Saudi consulate.
“Whether you like him (Khashoggi) or didn’t like him, things happen. But he (the crown prince) knew nothing about it. And we can leave it at that,” Trump said. “You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.”
That was Trump’s most forceful public defense of the crown prince over the 2018 death of Khashoggi. But it was not the only one.
Since the fall of 2018, Trump has repeatedly made a point of promoting bin Salman’s denials on the Khashoggi scandal — often emphasizing the crown prince’s words over the findings of the US intelligence assessments that concluded bin Salman played a central role in the killing. Again and again, Trump has pivoted to an explanation of why he sees Saudi Arabia as a critical ally on the economy and national security.
Here is a timeline of some of Trump’s remarks.
October 11, 2018: Trump focuses on Saudi investment
Less than two weeks after Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, where he had gone to get documents for his upcoming marriage, a journalist asked Trump whether the case would change how he dealt with the crown prince or other Saudi officials. Trump said, “We’ll have to see what happens,” and “I don’t like stopping massive amounts of money that’s being poured into our country” from Saudi Arabia.
Trump said that “there’ll be something that has to take place,” but “first, I want to find out what happened.” And he added: “Again, this took place in Turkey. And to the best of our knowledge, Khashoggi is not a United States citizen. Is that right?” When a journalist confirmed Khashoggi lived in the US but wasn’t a citizen, Trump said “we don’t like” the killing, “even a little bit,” but he added again that it “would not be acceptable” to reject what he claimed was $110 billion in Saudi investment over the scandal.
October 11, 2018: Trump notes Saudi leaders ‘deny it vehemently’
Asked in a CBS interview whether Khashoggi was murdered by the Saudis and whether the crown prince gave the order, Trump said it was not yet clear; he added, “We would be very upset and angry if that were the case. As of this moment, they deny it. And deny it vehemently. Could it be them? Yes.” He said, “There’s something really terrible and disgusting about that, if that were the case,” and that “there will be severe punishment” involved — but also said he doesn’t want US defense manufacturers to lose important Saudi purchases.
October 16, 2018: Trump tweets out the crown prince’s denial
Trump wrote on Twitter: “Just spoke with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia who totally denied any knowledge of what took place in their Turkish Consulate.” Trump also wrote that the crown prince said an investigation was already underway, and the president added — without a note of skepticism about the legitimacy of a Saudi probe — that “answers will be forthcoming shortly.”
November 16, 2018: Trump asks, ‘Will anybody really know?’
Asked in a Fox News interview whether the crown prince was lying to him about not being involved in the killing, Trump said, “I don’t know — you know, who can really know — but I can say this: He’s got many people now that say he had no knowledge.” Trump didn’t name those people. He said moments later, “Will anybody really know?”
Trump said people “close” to the crown prince “were probably involved,” and noted that he had just put sanctions on 17 Saudi individuals over the case, but added, “At the same time we do have an ally, and I want to stick with an ally that in many ways has been very good.”
November 17, 2018: Trump claims, ‘As of this moment, we were told that he did not play a role’
The morning after The Washington Post, CNN and The New York Times reported that sources said the CIA had assessed that the crown prince had ordered the killing of Khashoggi, Trump told reporters that the CIA would be speaking to him later that day — but claimed, “As of this moment, we were told that he (the crown prince) did not play a role.”
Asked a question (partly inaudible on the video of the exchange) related to holding the crown prince responsible, Trump said, “Well, we’re taking a look at it. You know, we also have a great ally in Saudi Arabia. They give us a lot of jobs. They give us a lot of business, a lot of economic development. … They have been a truly spectacular ally in terms of jobs and economic development.”
November 20, 2018: Trump writes, ‘Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!’
Trump issued a written statement in which he condemned the killing of Khashoggi as “an unacceptable and horrible crime” but also repeated Saudi representatives’ allegations against Khashoggi. And he then pivoted to this: “King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi. Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t! That being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi. In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
Trump used much of the statement to explain that he sees Saudi Arabia as an important source of investment and cheap oil and a key partner in fighting Iran and “Radical Islamic Terrorism.”
November 27, 2018: ‘The CIA did not say affirmatively he did it,’ Trump claims
In an interview with The Washington Post, Trump again described Saudi Arabia as “a great ally” and said he hoped to meet with the crown prince at an upcoming G20 summit. Asked directly why he was taking bin Salman’s denials over the evidence gathered by the intelligence community, Trump said, “I haven’t done that. If you look at my statement, it’s ‘maybe he did and maybe he didn’t.’ But he denies it. And people around him deny it. And the CIA did not say affirmatively he did it, either, by the way. I’m not saying that they’re saying he didn’t do it, but they didn’t say it affirmatively.”
He didn’t explain exactly what he meant. But a week later, a procession of US senators leaving a classified briefing about the killing from then-CIA Director Gina Haspel said they were left with no doubt about bin Salman’s involvement in the killing; Republican then-Sen. Bob Corker, who was chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he was sure the crown prince “ordered the killing, monitored the killing, knew exactly what was happening, planned it in advance. If he was in front of a jury he would be convicted in 30 minutes.”
A report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, declassified in 2021, said, “We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.” The report continued, “We base this assessment on the Crown Prince’s control of decisionmaking in the Kingdom since 2017, the direct involvement of a key adviser and members of Muhammad bin Salman’s protective detail in the operation, and the Crown Prince’s support for using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi.”
January 31, 2019: Trump says, ‘I’m not making excuses for anybody. I think that was a terrible event’
Trump said in an interview with The New York Times that Saudi Arabia is “a country that pays us a tremendous amount of money, creates a tremendous amount of jobs,” then adds of the Khashoggi case: “And Saudi Arabia, I’m not making excuses for anybody. I think that was a terrible event. It was a terrible tragedy. It was a terrible crime.”
June 21, 2019: Trump brushes off call for FBI probe, saying ‘I think it’s been heavily investigated’
Two days after the release of the report of a United Nations investigation into the killing of Khashoggi — which said “there is sufficient credible evidence regarding the responsibility of the Crown Prince demanding further investigation” and said the FBI should investigate — Trump told NBC that he had spoken to the crown prince that morning but the Khashoggi matter hadn’t come up. Trump then brushed aside the idea of the FBI investigating the killing, saying, “I think it’s been heavily investigated.” Asked by whom, Trump said, “By everybody.” Trump then spoke again about the importance of Saudi purchases of US products.
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