The Biden administration will release an intelligence report that concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that a non-classified report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence will be made public as early as next week.
‘I have no update at the moment,’ media secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday when asked about the upcoming news.
Khashoggi was writing columns criticizing the Saudi government for the paper before he was drugged and extradited after he was deported to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, to the papers necessary for his marriage to raise a Turkish citizen.
President Joe Biden’s administration is expected to release an unprovoked report as early as next week that ends Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (left) ordered the 2018 killing of the person- news Jamal Khashoggi (right)
The Biden administration is working more critically towards the Saudis, with the expectation that the president will communicate with King Salman bin Abdulaziz instead of ‘MBS,’ the crown prince. Biden has already announced that the U.S. will end support for Saudi Arabia’s controversial war with Yemen
The Biden administration has already announced that the president will snatch ‘MBS,’ as the crown prince is known, and instead engage with his father, the 85-year-old Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz .
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke to Crown Prince Mohammed, who is Saudi Defense Minister against Austin, Saudi state media reported Friday.
Biden is returning to ‘counter to counter’ communications, ‘the administration said, despite MBS being considered the country’ s de facto leader.
The president announced earlier this month that he would end support for Saudi Arabia’s controversial war in Yemen.
President Barack Obama began supporting Saudi Arabia and President Donald Trump stopped it, but Biden announced when he visited the State Department that it is coming to an end.
‘We are also raising our diplomacy to end the war in Yemen, a war that created a humanitarian and strategic catastrophe,’ said Biden.
Trump made U.S. relations with the Saudis a priority, making his first overseas trip in 2017 to Riyadh.
Jared Kushner was a well-known friend of the crown prince.
Khashoggi’s brutal killing did not change much.
In Bob Woodward’s book ‘Man,’ the Washington Post journalist wrote that Trump had said, ‘I saved a **,’ about Mohammed.
‘I had the opportunity to leave Congress alone. I was able to get them to stop, ‘Trump said.
Trump saw the relationship with Saudi Arabia in dollar figures, warning lawmakers that the Saudis could go into business with Russia instead. In May 2019, Trump passed Congress allowing the Saudis to buy $ 8 billion in arms.
Trump rejected MBS at face value, Woodward’s book noted.
‘He always says he didn’t do it. He says that to everyone, and I’m really glad he says that. But he will tell you that, he will say that to Congress, and he will say that to everyone. He never said he did, ‘Trump told Woodward.
Woodward asked if Trump believed he ordered Khashoggi’s assassination.
‘No, he says he didn’t,’ replied the president at the time. ‘He says emphatically that he didn’t. Bob spent $ 400 billion over a very short period of time. ‘
That dollar amount was significantly increased.
Trump also rejected a law passed in early 2019 that instructed his administration to present a non-sexual ODNI report to Congress with ‘determination and evidence regarding prior knowledge and the position of a current or former Saudi official Arabia … over the direction, ordering or thwarting evidence in the assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. ‘
In February last year the ODNI told transport directors that they were unable to ‘provide additional information … at a non-classified level,’ instead sending a copy of the CIA report filed.
In July, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe told lawyers that he would not release a non-classified report because additional information had been leaked around Mr. Khashoggi’s assassination would weaken U.S. intelligence sources and procedures. ‘
He added, ‘I have confirmed that this declaration is only a small “public interest” argument. ‘
During her confirmation, Biden’s DNI selection Avril Haines said she would release an ODNI report.
Several solar groups have also filed a suit to release the report through the courts, if the Biden administration does not live up to their promises, or if the non-classified report does not re-publish too much.