Jamal Khashoggi: Jared Kushner won’t say if he believes Saudi account of journalist’s slaying

Show Caption Hide Caption Jared Kushner and Saudi Crown Prince communicated via WhatsApp: Report White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner reportedly communicated with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman via WhatsApp. Veuer's Sam Berman has the full story.

WASHINGTON – Jared Kushner said Monday that he advised Saudi Arabia’s crown prince to be “fully transparent” in his handling of Jamal Khashoggi’s death, but he declined to say if he believed the kingdom’s assertion that Khashoggi died in a fist-fight that escalated inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey.

“Right now as an administration, we’re more in the fact-finding phase,” Kusher told CNN’s Van Jones on Monday. “Then we’ll determine which facts are credible.”

Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, has cultivated close ties with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s defacto ruler. Turkish officials say they have evidence that Saudi Arabia sent a 15-man team of assassins to kill Khashoggi, a U.S. resident who had written critically of the regime.

Several top lawmakers have said such an operation could not have occurred without the crown prince’s knowledge and participation, and they’ve been critical of Trump’s apparent hesitation to punish Saudi Arabia for the alleged extrajudicial killing of a journalist.

Saudi Arabia’s government admitted late Friday that Khashoggi died inside the consulate, asserting that he was involved in a “brawl” that led to his accidental death. Turkish officials say he was killed and dismembered.

Trump has equivocated on the incident, saying Saudi Arabia should face “severe” consequences if its leaders are found responsible while also emphasizing that he does not want to disrupt America’s long-standing alliance with its Middle East ally.

Trump initially said he found the Saudis account of Khashoggi's death credible but later told the Washington Post "there's been deception and there's been lies" from the Saudis on the matter. "Their stories are all over the place," he told the Post.

On Monday, Trump said the U.S. has investigators in Turkey and Saudi Arabia now, and he would know more about Khashoggi's death when those officials returned in the next day or so.

"I'm not satisfied with what I've heard" from the Saudi government, Trump said before leaving for a campaign rally in Texas.

Kushner defended the president’s stance.

“The president is focused on what is good for America, what are our strategic interests,” he told CNN.

Pressed on whether he thought the Saudis were being deceptive, Kushner did not directly respond.

“I see things that are deceptive every day. I see them in the Middle East. I see them in Washington,” he said. “We have our eyes wide open.”

Also on Monday, Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, suggested the media was hyping Khashoggi’s death to hurt his father.

“I’m not going to comment because I don’t know the facts,” Trump Jr., said in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY. “I know what the media’s pushing, which generally speaking over the last few years has been a rather dishonest narrative.”

“ … The media will rush in and highlight” anything that makes the president look bad, Trump Jr., added. He and Kimberly Giulofyle, a former Fox News host who now chairs a pro-Trump super PAC, spoke with USA TODAY in West Virginia ahead of a rally for GOP Senate candidate Patrick Morrisey.

Giulofyle said the president takes the Khashoggi case “very seriously” and will act “firmly and decisively” once he has reviewed all the facts.

“This president will not turn a blind eye to what’s happened in this situation,” she said.

Contributing: Kim Hjelmgaard

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