President Joe Biden’s administration will “soon” release a report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) on the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the State Department announced Wednesday.
Khashoggi was murdered and allegedly dismembered in 2018 by individuals linked to the Saudi government. Khashoggi was a longtime Saudi dissident and also a columnist for the Washington Post, killed on a trip to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The DNI report will likely detail the extent to which the U.S. believes the Saudi government and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman were responsible for the murder.
In the State Dept briefing Spox Ned Price declines to comment on the private jets used by the Saudi Arabian Khashoggi assassination squad being owned by a company seized by the MBS. Says he does not want to get ahead of the DNI report. @MarquardtA report: https://t.co/i2FqArbMta
— Kylie Atwood (@kylieatwood) February 24, 2021
New from @StateDeptSpox—confirms Biden admin “is prepared to release an unclassified report with full transparency for Congress” on #Khashoggi’s murder. “This is the law. We will follow the law.” But refers Qs to @ODNIgov, no word on timing beyond “soon.”
— Conor Finnegan (@cjf39) February 24, 2021
The Biden administration has already signaled deteriorating relations with the Saudi government, with Biden saying he will meet with his “counterpart” King Salman. Despite his title, King Salman’s son, bin Salman, is the de-facto leader of Saudi Arabia and has traditionally met with U.S. presidents. (RELATED: OPINION: Khashoggi Is No Hero, And Neither Is The Washington Post)
Bin Salman was relegated to speaking with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in a meeting with the U.S. on Friday.
A CIA report from just one month after Khashoggi’s murder found that not only was the Saudi government involved in his killing, but that bin Salman had personally ordered his assassination.
Further evidence first reported by CNN has also indicated that the assassins used a private jet company seized by bin Salman just one year earlier to travel to Turkey and carry out the assassination. White House Spokesperson Ned Price declined to comment on the revelation, however.