Saudi Arabia is reportedly ready to concede that a missing Saudi writer was killed in its consulate in Istanbul.
Exiled journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government and in particular of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who wrote for The Washington Post opinion page, was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate on Oct. 2.
CNN reported Monday that the Saudi government is preparing to say Khashoggi died during an interrogation that "went wrong."
The report cited two unnamed sources. It said one of the sources told CNN that the intention had been to abduct Khashoggi and that this had not been authorized by the Saudi government.
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that he was aware of the report but did not know if it was correct. He said the U.S. was working with Saudi Arabia and Turkey to figure out what happened.
Trump called Khashoggi's disappearance a "terrible situation." and suggested Monday that "rogue killers" could be responsible for his death, thus offering Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally, a possible path out of a global diplomatic firestorm.
Trump spoke after a 20-minute phone call with Saudi King Salman and has dispatched Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Riyadh for a face-to-face discussion with the king.
Before Monday, Trump had focused less on possible explanations for Khashoggi's likely demise than on possible punishment if the Saudis were found culpable.
On Monday, before leaving the White House for a trip to survey hurricane damage in Florida and Georgia, Trump told reporters: "The king firmly denied any knowledge of it."
Trump said he did not "want to get into his [King Salman's] mind," but "it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. I mean, who knows? We're going to try getting to the bottom of it very soon, but his was a flat denial."
Trump administration officials said intelligence collected by the U.S. has been inconclusive as to what happened to Khashoggi. With such a lack of clarity, the administration has not ruled out any scenario.
In a sign of new cooperation between Turkey and Saudi Arabia that could shed light on the disappearance, Turkish crime scene investigators entered the consulate Monday. It remains unclear what evidence they might be able to uncover given the amount of time that has passed since Khashoggi's disappearance.
