President Donald Trump stated on Tuesday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman “denied any knowledge” of what happened to dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but promised to “expand” an investigation into his disappearance, CNBC reported.
“Answers will be forthcoming shortly,” the President tweeted.
Trump said that he had a call with Crown Prince Mohammad that also included Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was sent to Riyadh to meet with top Saudi officials regarding the ongoing incident.
“Just spoke with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia who totally denied any knowledge of what took place in their Turkish Consulate,” Trump wrote.
Trump added that the crown prince reassured U.S. leaders the Saudi government “has already started, and will rapidly expand, a full and complete investigation into this matter.”
“Just spoke with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia who totally denied any knowledge of what took place in their Turkish Consulate. He was with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,” Trump tweeted on October 16, 2018.
The comments mark the second time in two days Trump has vouched for Saudi Arabia’s denials of knowledge about the fate of Khashoggi, who has not been seen since entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.
But in an interview set to air Tuesday night on Fox Business, Trump said that if the Saudi leadership was involved it would be bad.
“It depends on if the king or the crown prince knew about it in my opinion,” he said. “If they knew about it, that would be bad.”
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