WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is denying a report that Turkish officials shared with him an audio recording and transcript of the alleged murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who went missing over two weeks ago after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
“I’ve heard no tape, I’ve seen no transcript,” Pompeo told reporters overnight.
On Friday morning, Turkey backed up the U.S. diplomat’s assertion, with Foreign Minister Mehmet Cavusoglu telling reporters in Ankara that his country had yet to share any audio evidence on the case with any other nation. He still would not confirm whether his country does in fact possess an audio or video recording of the purported murder, but reiterated Turkey’s vague assertion that investigators had obtained “evidence.”
Pro-government media in Turkey have released surveillance photos identifying an intelligence officer in Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage as the mastermind of the alleged killing.
Saudis may lay blame on intel chief
But as The New York Times first reported on Friday, Saudi Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, a top intelligence official with close ties to the crown prince, may get the blame for the alleged killing.
CBS News was able to confirm that Saudi officials are considering blaming al-Assiri, the Saudis’ deputy head of intelligence.
Turkish officials say Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate on Oct. 2, and on Thursday they expanded their search for his body to a large forest just outside Istanbul.
White House to give Saudis “a few days”
As CBS News White House correspondent Weija Jiang reports, the expansion of the Turks’ investigation came as President Trump moved closer to acknowledging a Saudi role in Khashoggi’s disappearance.
“We should be able to get to the bottom of it fairly soon,” Mr. Trump said on Thursday. As he headed out West for campaign rallies, he was asked if he believed Khashoggi was in fact dead.
“It certainly looks that way to me. It’s very sad,” the president said, adding that if Saudi Arabia is to blame, it will face consequences. “It’ll have to be very severe. I mean it’s bad, bad, stuff. But we’ll see what happens.”
Mr. Trump said he would wait for the results of three different investigations before drawing conclusions.
Pompeo briefed the president at the White House after a trip to Saudi Arabia and Turkey. He said Saudi officials, including the crown prince and his father King Salman, had promised a transparent probe.
“I told the president this morning that we ought to give them a few more days,” Pompeo told reporters. “There are lots of stories out there about what has happened. We’re just going to allow the process to move forward.”
Trump appears to toughen his stance
But Jiang says the administration does seem to be toughening its stance. On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced he’s ditching a financial summit in Riyadh.
Writing on Twitter, after meeting President Trump and Pompeo, Mnuchin said, “we have decided I will not be participating.”
His withdrawal marked the first formal rebuke of the kingdom by the U.S. over the Khashoggi case, in contrast to Mr. Trump’s recent comments praising Saudi Arabia as a key ally in countering Iran — and ordering American-made weapons.
Khashoggi warned in 2017 of “impulsive” Saudi prince
Appearing on CBSN last year, Khashoggi himself warned the Trump administration’s embrace of Saudi leadership could backfire, and he criticized the Saudi crown prince’s behavior in foreign policy as “impulsive.”
“It is dangerous, it is dangerous for Saudi Arabia, for the region,” he said.
Sources tell CBS News that the results of the Saudi’s own investigation will be made public by Sunday. Turkey has not said when it will release the results of its probe — or any audio that proves Khashoggi was murdered, if it does have such a smoking-gun.
Meanwhile, human rights groups are banding together to call on the United Nations to set up an independent investigation, arguing Saudi authorities cannot be trusted to deliver credible results, because they are investigating themselves.
