NBC News: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday after meeting with President Donald Trump that the U.S. would give Saudi Arabia several more days to “conduct a complete, thorough investigation” into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi before deciding on a response.
“There are lots of stories out there about what has happened. We are going to allow the process to move forward,” Pompeo said at the White House.
“I told President Trump this morning we ought to give them a few more days to complete that so that we, too, have a complete understanding of the facts surrounding that, at which point we can make a decision how or if the United States should respond to the incident surrounding Mr. Khashoggi,” he said.
Asked whether the Saudis, who have been accused of being responsible for Khashoggi’s disappearance, could be trusted to investigate, Pompeo expressed confidence in the kingdom.
“We’re all going to get to see the response from Saudi Arabia to this,” he said. “When we see that, we’ll get a chance to determine, all of us will get a chance to make a determination as to the credibility of the work that went into that, whether it’s truly accurate, fair and transparent in the very way they made a personal commitment to me, and ultimately made a personal commitment to the president when they spoke to him.”
He added that Saudi Arabia was also “an important strategic alliance of the United States — we need to be mindful of that as well.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin confirmed on Twitter that after meeting with Trump and Pompeo Thursday morning, he would not be attending the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia as initially planned. Many media organizations and business leaders had pulled out of the meeting, dubbed “Davos in the Desert,” after Khashoggi’s disappearance.
After meeting with Pompeo, Trump said on Twitter only that Pompeo “is waiting for the results of the investigations being done by the Saudis and Turkey, and just gave a news conference to that effect.”
Pompeo’s meeting with Trump on Thursday was their first since Pompeo returned from meetings with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey earlier this week.
The secretary of state arrived in Turkey on Wednesday as reports of an alleged audio recording of Saudi officials killing Khashoggi were published, putting even more pressure on the White House to deliver a strong rebuke against the crown prince.
On Wednesday, Trump cast doubt on the leaked recording, telling reporters he was “not sure yet that it exists,” but that if it was, the U.S. had asked Turkey to share it.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Trump also compared Khashoggi’s disappearance to the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“Here we go again with, you know, you’re guilty until proven innocent,” Trump said. “We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh, and he was innocent all the way as far as I’m concerned.”
