U.N. investigator 'shocked and angry' at Trump's defense of Saudi crown prince over Khashoggi murder

LONDON — A former United Nations investigator who wrote the authoritative report on the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi told NBC News on Wednesday that she was “shocked and angry” at President Donald Trump’s dismissal of intelligence saying Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the killing

LONDON — A former United Nations investigator who wrote the authoritative report on the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi told NBC News on Wednesday that she was “shocked and angry” at President Donald Trump’s dismissal of intelligence saying Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the killing.

Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of the watchdog Amnesty International, said there was “no doubt whatsoever” that the crown prince ordered Khashoggi’s grisly bone-saw killing inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018. American intelligence said that the crown prince personally approved the operation to kill or kidnap the Washington Post columnist, something the de facto Saudi leader has denied despite apologizing for the murder by his officials.

As the Saudi leader visited the White House on Tuesday, Trump disavowed the findings by his own intelligence agencies, saying the crown prince “knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that,” even chiding the enquiring reporter for trying to “embarrass our guests by asking a question like that.”

Trump called Khashoggi “extremely controversial” and claimed that “a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about.” He added, “Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.”

The remarks surprised Callamard, who while serving as the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary killings investigated Khashoggi’s murder and in 2019 wrote arguably the most detailed and authoritative report about what happened.