SAUDI KING DENIES ANY INFO ON KHASHOGGI, ORDERS AN INQUIRY

washington — US President Donald Trump suggested on Monday that “rogue killers” could be responsible for a Saudi journalist’s disappearance after a personal phone call in which Trump said the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, strongly denied any knowledge of what happened to Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump also announced he’d dispatched Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the Kingdom — and anywhere else necessary — to get to the bottom of the suspected murder of Khashoggi, who hasn’t been seen since entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago.

The US president is under growing pressure to take action on the suspected murder of the Saudi writer, who has been living and working in the United States, including contributing to The Washington Post and writing columns critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Trump said on Monday he had spent about 20 minutes on the phone with King Salman, who denied having any information about what had happened to Khashoggi.

“The king firmly denied any knowledge of it,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a trip to survey hurricane damage in Florida and in Georgia. Trump said he didn’t “want to get into (King Salman’s) mind,” but told reporters: “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.”

King Salman ordered the public prosecutor to open an internal investigation into the Khashoggi case, a Saudi official said. “The King has ordered the public prosecutor to open an internal investigation into the Khashoggi matter based on the info from the joint team in Istanbul,” said the official.

In Istanbul, meanwhile, Turkish and Saudi investigators began conducting a joint inspection of the consulate. A team arrived by unmarked police cars at the consulate but said nothing to journalists waiting outside as they entered the building.

The kingdom has called the allegations of foul play “baseless” but has offered no evidence the writer left the consulate.

These could have been rogue killers. I mean, who knows? We’re going to try getting to the bottom of it very soon

Donald Trump, US President