Trump says ‘rogue killers’ may have killed Saudi journalist

Canada joins allies in calling for investigation

WASHINGTON— U.S. President Donald Trumpsuggested Monday that “rogue killers” could be responsible for the mysterious disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an expla- nation offering U.S. ally Saudi Arabia a possible path out of a global diplomatic firestorm. The Saudis continued to deny they killed the writer, but there were indications the story could soon change. While Trump commented at the White House, Turkish crime scene investigators finally entered the Saudi consulate to comb the building where Khashoggi was last seen alive two weeks ago.

Late in the day, there were published reports that the Saudis were preparing to concede that Khashoggi, a U.S.-based Saudi contributor to the Washington Post, had been killed in an interrogation gone wrong.

Trump spoke after a personal 20-minute phone call with Saudi King Salman.

“The king firmly denied any knowledge of it,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a trip to survey hurri- cane damage in Florida and Georgia. Trump said he didn’t “want to get into (Salman’s) mind,” but he added, “it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. I mean, who knows? We’re going to try getting to the bottom of it very soon, but his was a flat denial.”

Canada has joined its allies in pressing Saudi Arabia for answers in the disappearance and suspected murder of the prominent journalist, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said. She spoke with her counterparts in Great Britain, the United States and Germany as international outrage mounts.

“Canada calls for a thorough, credible and transparent investigation into the serious allegations about Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance,” said Freeland, who spoke with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir earlier in the day.