Khashoggi killing: Democrats indicate probe into Trump's knowledge of CIA report

A day after US President Donald Trump refused to implicate Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death case, California Representative Adam Schiff has stated that the Democrats want a probe into Trump's knowledge of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report before he publicly supported the Crown Prince.

Trump threw his weight behind the Crown Prince despite a CIA report pointed to the pivotal role of the Saudi leader in Khashoggi's murder. "Certainly we will be delving further into the murder of Khashoggi, and I want to make sure that the committee is fully debriefed on it," Schiff told reporters.

"We will certainly want to examine what the intelligence community knows about the murder," Schiff, the future head of the US House Intelligence Committee, further added. Referring to the release of CIA report to the Congress, he stated, "It will be quite clear whether the president is relying on the intelligence community and our best source of information or whether the president is representing something very different."

According to Sputnik, the Democrat also said that the probe would show the Congress if Trump were "making representations to the public that are at odds with what we know."

Trump had defended MBS, stating that the CIA had not come to a firm conclusion and that there was ambiguity surrounding the fact whether the Crown Prince was informed before Khashoggi was killed in Saudi consular premises in Istanbul, Turkey on October 2.

Khashoggi was reported as missing after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for official work, after which his murder was confirmed by the Saudi prosecutor. Actions have been taken against the Saudi nationals who have been arrested by the Kingdom's authorities for their alleged involvement in the killing of Khashoggi.

However, The Washington Post published a CIA report which mentioned that the Crown Prince had ordered Khashoggi's killing, following which US Senators have called for Trump to be more transparent and to come clean with all facts around the killing of the journalist.