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Who can really know’ if bin Salman lied in Khashoggi case, Trump wonders on Fox News

President Trump, speaking exclusively to Fox News' Chris Wallace (not seen) in a wide-ranging interview aired November 18, 2018. (Photo via Youtube)

US President Donald Trump is still remaining non-committal about the possibility that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman lied to him when he denied involvement in the assassination of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

" I don’t know, you know, who could really know," Trump said on Fox News Sunday, when asked if he thought he had been lied to. "But I can say this: he’s got many people now that say he had no knowledge."

The president, who is in a $110 billion arms deal with the monarchy, further said he would not listen to the audio of Khashoggi’s killing provided to the CIA by the Turkish intelligence.

"We have the tape. I don’t want to hear the tape. No reason for me to hear the tape… because it’s a suffering tape," Trump said. "It’s a terrible tape… I’ve been fully briefed on it. There’s no reason for me to hear it."

The tape was reportedly shared with CIA Director Gina Haspel, who visited Turkey amid an investigation into the journalist disappearance after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month.

Turkish intelligence intercepts reportedly show that Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the Saudi mission in Istanbul on October 2, was murdered on a direct order from bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.

Khashoggi had been there to obtain a document certifying he divorced his ex-wife.

Trump has already been shown evidence of the prince’s involvement in the killing, and privately he remains skeptical, an unnamed Trump aide told The Washington Post on Saturday.


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