President Donald Trump on Tuesday, October 17, 2018 criticised rapidly mounting global condemnation of Saudi Arabia over the mystery of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, warning of a rush to judgment and echoing the Saudis’ request for patience.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Trump compared the case of Khashoggi, who Turkish officials have said was murdered in the Saudis’ Istanbul consulate, to the allegations of sexual assault leveled against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing.
“I think we have to find out what happened first,” Trump said. “Here we go again with, you know, you’re guilty until proven innocent. I don’t like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I’m concerned.”
Trump’s remarks were his most robust defense yet of the Saudis, a U.S. ally he has made central to his Mideast agenda. They put the president at odds with other key allies and with some leaders in his Republican Party who have condemned the Saudi leadership for what they say is an obvious role in the case. Trump appeared willing to resist the pressure to follow suit, accepting Saudi denials and their pledge to investigate.
The Oval Office interview came not long after Trump spoke Tuesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He spoke by phone a day earlier with King Salman, and he said both deny any knowledge of what happened to Khashoggi.
After speaking with the king, Trump floated the idea that “rogue killers” may have been responsible for the disappearance. The president told AP Tuesday that that description was informed by his “feeling” from his conversation with Salman, and that the King did not use the term.
In an interview with Fox Business earlier on Tuesday, Trump alluded that he was hesitant to take a stance that could affect American trade deals with the Saudis.
“They’ve been a great ally to me, to me,” Trump told Fox host Trish Regan. “They made the largest order in the history of our country, outside of our country, for weapons, for many kinds of military weapons. … So now people say, well, we want to have you end that order. Well, aren’t we just hurting our own country?”
Although many details of the order are fanciful, the president has continued to tout it in defense of his support for the Saudis.
In Turkey earlier Tuesday, a high-level Turkish official told AP that police investigators searching the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul had found evidence that Khashoggi was killed there.
The New York Times on Tuesday also reported that one of the suspects identified by Turkish authorities in Khashoggi’s disappearance has ties to Mohammed and frequently traveled with him. Several others have been linked to the crown prince’s security team, and another is a forensic doctor who reports to the highest-level officials in Saudi Arabia.
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