We’re in ‘fact-finding phase’: Jared

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said on Monday that the United States was still seeking facts in the slaying of Jamal Khashoggi, who Saudi Arabia claims died after a fistfight with security officers in Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul.

“Right now, as an administration, we’re more in the fact-finding phase,” President Trump’s son-in-law said on CNN.

Kushner was asked whether he trusted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader with whom he has a close relationship.

“We’re getting facts in from multiple places,” Kushner replied, “and once those facts come in, the secretary of state will work with our national-security team to help us determine what we want to believe, and what we think is credible and what we think is not credible”

Riyadh has given contradictory accounts of what happened to Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of the crown prince, after he entered the consulate on Oct. 2 to pick up papers for his wedding.

Two days after the kingdom claimed Khashoggi died in a fistfight, Turkey’s ruling party said on Monday that it was a “monstrously planned” murder.

Asked whether the Saudis had been deceptive, Kushner said, “We have our eyes wide open.

“The president’s focused on what’s good for America, what are our strategic interests, where do we share interests with other countries. Let’s work towards those,” he added.

Kushner said he told the crown prince “just to be transparent, to be fully transparent,” and that “the world is watching. This is a very, very serious accusation and a very serious situation.”

Asked how the crown prince had responded, Kushner said, “We’ll see.”

He also stressed the importance of the US-Saudi alliance.

“We have to be able to work with our allies, and Saudi Arabia has, I think, been a very strong ally in terms of pushing back on Iran’s aggression,” Kushner said.