U.S. President Donald Trump has said he would not listen to the tape recording purported to be of the murder of Saudi activist Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate last month.
Trump told Fox News’ Chris Wallace on Sunday that there was “no reason” for him to hear the tape because he had been briefed on it.
“We have the tape, I don’t want to hear the tape, no reason for me to hear the tape,” Trump said in the interview broadcast on “Fox News Sunday.”
When Wallace asked why he did not want to hear the recording, Trump said: “Because it’s a suffering tape, it’s a terrible tape. I’ve been fully briefed on it. There’s no reason for me to hear it.”
The president added that he knew “everything that went on in the tape without having to hear it” before calling Khashoggi’s death “very violent, very vicious and terrible.”
The interview was broadcast one day after Trump vowed that his administration would “be having a very full report over the next two days, probably Monday or Tuesday.” It was unclear whether the document would be made public.
The Washington Post and other outlets have reported that the CIA had concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi’s death.
It would be recalled that a U.S. government official told Fox News on Saturday that no final assessment or conclusion relating to the crown prince’s involvement had been reached, nor had a so-called “smoking gun” been found
