BEIRUT -- President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Saudi Arabia's crown prince had again denied any knowledge of the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist, but would expand an investigation into his disappearance and suspected killing two weeks ago.
"Answers will be forthcoming shortly," Trump said on Twitter, relaying that he had spoken with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on a phone call that also included Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who met with the kingdom's rulers in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.
Bin Salman, Trump said, "totally denied any knowledge of what took place in their Turkish Consulate."
The prince "has already started, and will rapidly expand, a full and complete investigation into this matter," the president said.
Turkish officials say Khashoggi was killed and dismembered after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.
Later, in an interview with The Associated Press, Trump compared the case of Khashoggi's disappearance to the allegations of sexual assault leveled against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing.
"I think we have to find out what happened first," Trump said. "Here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent. I don't like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I'm concerned."
Trump said he hopes the Saudis' own investigation of Khashoggi's disappearance will be concluded in "less than a week."
Pompeo met with King Salman of Saudi Arabia, the crown prince and other top officials in Riyadh to discuss Khashoggi's disappearance.
Khashoggi, who wrote columns for The Washington Post, lived in the United States, and his 60th birthday was on Saturday. His disappearance has heightened tension between Saudi Arabia and both Turkey and the United States, while severely tarnishing the reputation of the kingdom and its powerful crown prince.
Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told reporters in Ankara on Tuesday that investigators who searched the consulate on Monday and Tuesday were looking into "toxic materials, and those materials being removed by painting them over." Turkish news outlets, citing unnamed sources, have reported that Khashoggi was drugged, and that parts of the consulate and the nearby consul's residence were repainted after the journalist's disappearance.
Later in the day, the Saudi consul, Mohammed al-Otaibi, left the country, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. Pompeo is expected to travel to Ankara, the Turkish capital, today.
Trump has vowed "severe punishment" if a Saudi hand is confirmed in Khashoggi's killing, but has said he does not want the case to affect arms sales that create American jobs.
But on Monday, a person familiar with Saudi plans said the kingdom was likely to say that the killing was an accident committed by "rogue" Saudi agents, not an assassination ordered from Riyadh. The Saudi version of the story will probably be that officials intended to interrogate and abduct Khashoggi, spiriting him back to Saudi Arabia, but that they botched the job, killing him instead, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because Saudi officials had yet to talk publicly about their plans.
The reported killing has created a bipartisan uproar in Congress, shaking the foundations of the close U.S.-Saudi relationship with calls for suspension of military sales punctuated by particularly strong rebukes of Mohammed bin Salman, who basically rules the kingdom for his father.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., formerly a strong advocate of Saudi Arabia, has been among the most outspoken critics of the crown prince over the Khashoggi mystery, even before more facts are known.
"He had this guy murdered in the consulate in Turkey. Expect me to ignore it? I feel used and abused," Graham said Tuesday on Fox and Friends. "I was on the floor every time defending Saudi Arabia because they are a good ally."
Graham said "I'm not going back to Saudi Arabia as long as this guy's in charge," and suggested the king remove the prince from power. "This guy is a wrecking ball," the senator said.
In the meantime, international leaders and business executives are severing or rethinking ties to the Saudi government after Khashoggi's disappearance. Trump has resisted any action, pointing to the U.S. weapons deals pending with Saudi Arabia and saying that sanctions could end up hurting the American economy.
Trump said Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's trip to attend a Saudi investment conference is still on but could be canceled by Friday depending on what the investigation finds.
"I think we'll also be guided by what other countries are doing," he said.
ROGUE KILLERS
For two weeks, Saudi leaders, including the king and the crown prince, have denied that their country had anything to do with Khashoggi's disappearance and have said that they did not know where he was. Saudi officials have insisted that he left the consulate, safe and free, the same day he entered it, although they have offered no supporting evidence.
But by Monday night, it appeared that the Trump administration and Turkey's leaders were leaving room for a new version of events: Trump said after speaking with King Salman that perhaps "rogue killers" had been involved, and the Turkish authorities stopped leaking details of the investigation, which had previously appeared daily on the covers of Turkish newspapers.
At their meeting on Tuesday, Pompeo "thanked the king for his commitment to supporting a thorough, transparent and timely investigation of Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance," said Heather Nauert, a State Department spokesman.
"While the United States has a number of regional and bilateral issues to discuss with Saudi leadership, learning what happened to Jamal Khashoggi is the primary purpose of this trip and is of great interest to the president," Nauert said. "The secretary has made that clear in each of his meetings today."
Pompeo was greeted on arrival by Prince Khalid bin Salman, a son of the king and younger brother of the crown prince. Khalid bin Salman had been serving as the Saudi ambassador to Washington, but returned to Riyadh last week, and U.S. officials said he was unlikely to return.
After seeing the king, Pompeo met with Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, and later with Mohammed bin Salman, who is regarded as the power behind the throne.
"We are strong and old allies," the crown prince said in English, in brief remarks with reporters present as his meeting with the secretary of state began. "We face our challenges together."
Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to pick up a document -- certification of his divorce so that he could remarry in Turkey. He and his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, planned to wed the next day.
The Turkish authorities have released video of him walking into the consulate, but they say there is no video of him walking out. Cengiz waited for him outside the building for hours.
Turkish officials say they have detailed evidence that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate but have not released it publicly, and it is unclear if they have shared it with allies like the United States or Britain.
The day of Khashoggi's disappearance, 15 Saudi officials flew into Istanbul on two private jets chartered by a company with close ties to the crown prince and the Saudi Interior Ministry, the Turks say. They say the Saudis went to the consulate, killed Khashoggi and disposed of his body, then returned to the airport the same day and left Turkey.
One of the Saudis, an autopsy specialist, entered the country with a bone saw, according to Turkish officials.
Saudi officials allowed a team of Turkish investigators to search the consulate for the first time on Monday, and the Turks spent hours inside, leaving early Tuesday. They were expected to enter the consulate again, as well as the consul's residence nearby, which the Turkish news media suggested may also have been involved in the plot.
The Washington Post's publisher and chief executive, Fred Ryan, spoke out while Pompeo was visiting with the Saudis, exhorting the Trump administration to pressure the kingdom's officials for an honest and complete disclosure.
"The Saudi government can no longer remain silent, and it is essential that our own government and others push harder for the truth," Ryan said on Twitter. "Until we have a full account and full accountability, it cannot be business as usual with the Saudi Government."
Information for this article was contributed by Ben Hubbard and Daniel Victor of The New York Times; by Carol Morello, Erin Cunningham, Kareem Fahim, Souad Mekhennet and John Wagner of The Washington Post; and by Zeke Miller, Jonathan Lemire, Catherine Lucey and Matthew Lee of The Associated Press.
A Section on 10/17/2018