U.S. envoy says Saudi’s ties to killing unproven

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Saturday that the U.S. has “no direct evidence” linking Saudi Arabia’s crown prince to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but he declined to address reports that the CIA has concluded the kingdom’s leader was involved.

Pompeo’s remarks came amid growing congressional pressure to punish Saudi Arabia for Khashoggi’s murder in October at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The killing has put a major strain on American-Saudi ties.

“I have read every piece of intelligence that is in the possession of the United States government and when it is done, when you complete that analysis, there is no direct evidence linking [the crown prince] to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi,” Pompeo said in an interview with CNN from the Group of 20 meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Asked to comment on reports that the CIA concluded Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was involved, Pompeo, who served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from January 2017 until April 2018, said he couldn’t comment on the agency’s assessment.

The administration’s investigation of the incident is ongoing, Pompeo said, adding that “we will continue to hold those responsible accountable.”

Mohammed sent at least 11 messages to his closest adviser, who allegedly oversaw the team that killed Khashoggi, in the hours before and after his death in October, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing a highly classified CIA assessment report.

The Journal said it had reviewed excerpts of the CIA’s assessment, which included electronic intercepts and other information. The excerpts state that the CIA had “medium-to-high” confidence that Mohammad had personally targeted Khashoggi to the extent of “probably ordering his death,” The Journal said. However, the assessment stated that there is no direct reporting of the crown prince actually issuing a kill order, The Journal said.

Mohammed sent the electronic messages to Saud al-Qahtani, who supervised the 15-man team that killed Khashoggi and who was in direct communication with the team’s leader in Istanbul, The Journal said, citing the CIA report. The content of the messages between Mohammed and al-Qahtani isn’t known.