‘Will anybody really know?’

Trump casts doubt on Saudi prince’s role in slaying

President Donald Trump said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has denied to him perhaps five times any role in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and the U.S. may never know whether he was involved in the murder.

“Well, will anybody really know? All right, will anybody really know?” Trump responded when Fox News anchor Chris Wallace asked during a

Fox News Sunday interview that was taped Friday whether the prince’s denials might be lies.

Several news organizations, including The Washington Post and New York Times reported the CIA has concluded the crown prince ordered Khashoggi’s assassination in Istanbul last month, contradicting the Saudi government’s claim he wasn’t involved in the murder.

CIA officials have high confidence in their conclusion, which is based on multiple sources of intelligence, the Post reported.

Trump said Saturday the U.S. will issue a “very full report” on the killing by Tuesday.

But Trump denied the CIA has made a judgment, saying Saturday that the intelligence agency hasn’t “assessed anything yet.

It’s too early. That was a very premature report.” Trump told Wallace in the interview conducted Friday that the prince had told him he had nothing to do with the killing “maybe five times at different points,” including “as recently as a few days ago.”

Still, Trump said, the prince “did have certainly people that were reasonably close to him and close to him that were probably involved.”

Trump said he has been briefed on a recording of the murder that Turkey has shared with the U.S. government, but he didn’t want to listen to it “because it’s a suffering tape, it’s a terrible tape.”

“I know everything that went on in the tape without having to hear it,” Trump said. “It was very violent, very vicious and terrible.”