President Trump said Tuesday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, “knew nothing” about the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, despite a 2021 intelligence report finding bin Salman ordered the killing.
“You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial,” Mr. Trump said about Khashoggi in response to a question from a journalist about his business dealings with bin Salman despite the intelligence report’s findings. “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen, but he knew nothing about it and we can leave it at that.”
Sitting next to Mr. Trump in the Oval Office while visiting the White House, bin Salman said, “About the journalist, it’s really painful to hear that anyone losing his life for no real purpose.” The crown prince also said, “We did all the right steps in terms of investigation, etc., in Saudi Arabia and we’ve improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that.”
“It’s painful and it’s a huge mistake, and we are doing our best that will never happen again,” bin Salman said.
Bin Salman is making his first visit to the White House since Khashoggi’s murder. Bin Salman has denied any involvement, but he told CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell in a 2019 “60 Minutes” interview, “I take full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia, especially since it was committed by individuals working for the Saudi government.”
The 2021 U.S. intelligence report concluded that “the Crown Prince has had absolute control over the Kingdom’s security and intelligence organizations, making it highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince’s authorization.”
After Mr. Trump’s comments Tuesday, Khashoggi’s widow, Hanan Khashoggi, directed a message on social media to him, writing, “There is no justification to murder my husband.”
“While Jamal was a good transparent and brave man many people may not have agreed with his opinions and desire for freedom of the press,” she wrote.
Mr. Trump insisted he has “nothing to do” with his family’s business dealings with Saudi Arabia, and insisted “they’ve done very little with Saudi Arabia, actually.”
Mr. Trump called bin Salman his friend and praised him as “incredible on human rights and everything else” as the Saudi royal made his first visit to the White House since Khashoggi’s killing.
As families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack have pursued a civil lawsuit alleging the kingdom sponsored, aided and supported the al Qaeda hijackers, bin Salman has sought to distance the Saudi government from the attack.
“I feel painful about, you know, families of 9/11 in America, but you know, we have to focus on reality,” bin Salman said Tuesday. “Reality based on CIA documents and based on a lot of documents that Osama bin Laden used Saudi people in that event for one purpose: To destroy this relation, the American-Saudi relationship.”
Bin Salman said that “whoever buys that” is “helping Osama bin Laden’s purpose of destroying this relation.” Bin Salman said bin Laden knew the “strong” relationship between America and Saudi Arabia is “bad for extremism.”
Bin Salman and Mr. Trump announced Tuesday that Saudi Arabia will increase its investments of $600 billion in the U.S. to nearly $1 trillion.