U.S. President Donald Trump says he is still not satisfied with what he has heard from Saudi Arabia about the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but he also does not want the United States to lose investments from Riyadh.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, disappeared on October 2 after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to pick up documents for his upcoming marriage.
Riyadh initially denied knowledge of his fate before saying he was killed in a fight in the consulate -- a changing position that has been greeted skeptically by several Western governments.
"I am not satisfied with what I've heard," Trump told reporters at the White House on October 22. "I don't want to lose all that investment that's been made in our country. But we're going to get to the bottom of it."
Trump said he spoke with the crown prince on October 22. He also said there are Americans in Saudi Arabia and U.S. intelligence officers in Turkey working on the Khashoggi case who will return to Washington by October 23.
Turkish officials suspect Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate by Saudi agents and that his body was cut up. Turkish sources say authorities have an audio recording purportedly documenting the murder of the 59-year-old.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will release information about the investigation in a speech on October 23.
Turkish surveillance video leaked on October 22 shows a man leaving the diplomatic post apparently wearing Khashoggi’s clothes as part of a deception aimed at spreading confusion about his fate.
Meanwhile, Turkish crime-scene investigators late on October 22 had surrounded a Saudi consular vehicle parked at an Istanbul garage.
The Saudi Consulate on October 22 was refusing to grant Turkish investigators permission to search the car, which has diplomatic license plates.