Earlier this month, the CIA determined thatt the Saudi crown prince ordered Khashoggi's assassination despite consistent denials by Saudi Arabia.
- Washington Post editor Karen Attiah, who worked with murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi during his time as a contributor for the paper, claimed the Trump administration is helping "cover up" for the Saudi crown prince.
- Attiah, who works as an editor for the Post's Global Opinions section, said in a tweet on Tuesday that recent actions by Trump officials suggest a coordinated cover up in the wake of Khashoggi's murder.
- She cited several examples of US officials — including John Bolton, Gina Haspel, and Trump himself — moving away from evidence that reportedly implicates the crown prince in Khashoggi's brutal killing.
- Earlier this month, the CIA determined that Prince Mohammed ordered the assassination despite consistent denials by Saudi Arabia.
Washington Post editor Karen Attiah, who worked with murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi during his time as a contributor for the paper, claimed the Trump administration is helping "cover up" for the Saudi crown prince's "bloody mess."
Attiah, who works as an editor for the Post's Global Opinions section, said in a tweet on Tuesday that recent actions by Trump officials suggest a coordinated cover up by the White House in the wake of Khashoggi's murder.
Attiah cited several examples of US officials distancing themselves from available evidence that reportedly implicates the crown prince in Khashoggi's brutal killing.
Audio evidence supplied by the Turkish government has been circulating around global intelligence agencies, and reportedly sheds light on how the murder took place. The CIA has determined that Prince Mohammed ordered Khashoggi's assassination, according to multiple reports, despite consistent denials by Saudi Arabia.
Several members of Trump's cabinet have refused to listen to the tapes. President Trump himself said there was "no reason" to hear the recording because it would not change his decision on how to respond.
"It's a suffering tape, it's a terrible tape," Trump said in the interview with Fox News earlier this month. "I know everything that went on in the tape without having to hear it."
Trump doubled down on his defense of the Saudi crown prince last week, and said the US-Saudi relationship was "paramount" in his decision making.
White House national security adviser John Bolton on Tuesday said he hasn't listened to the audio either because he does not speak Arabic.
Bolton claimed that people who speak Arabic have listened to the tape and given White House advisers the "substance" of what is in it.
And reports emerged on Tuesday which said the White House is preventing CIA Director Gina Haspel — who traveled to Ankara and is said to have listened to the tapes — from briefing the Senate on its contents. Other intelligence officials have also been barred from a closed door meeting, ahead of a vote that would determine if the US would cut support for Saudi forces in Yemen, the Guardian said.
Former CIA officer Bob Baer, who worked primarily in the Middle East, said the US has purposely muted its response to Khashoggi's murder as part of a deliberate cover up.
"We've always turned a blind eye to what's going on in Saudi Arabia," he told CNN earlier this month. "Saudi Arabia is a volcano and to try and push the Crown Prince out, we don't have any players [in Saudi Arabia] on our side, so we don't know what to do."
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