Contradicting U.S. intelligence reports, a foreign affairs minister claimed the Saudi officials accused of killing the journalist acted “outside their scope of authority.”

...but provided no new information about the murder or the investigation into how it happened.

...part of a broader push that [...] would continue "until meaningful action is taken" over Saudi Arabia's role in the killing.

Pompeo said the media's reporting on the assessment "has been inaccurate," while declining to say what was false.

Graham said Tuesday that you’d have to be “willfully blind” to not know Mohammed was responsible — a clear rebuke of Trump’s argument that this whole thing resides in some kind of gray area.

After a briefing from CIA Director Gina Haspel, Senate leaders declared Tuesday they were convinced that Saudi Arabia's crown prince was behind the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

American intelligence agencies have evidence that Prince Salman and Mr. Qahtani had 11 exchanges that roughly coincided with the hit team’s advance into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, where Mr. Khashoggi was murdered.

In his conversation with Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trudeau said better answers about the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi were required.

..."we could possibly lure [Khashoggi] outside Saudi Arabia and make arrangements," if the crown prince could not convince the dissident Saudi journalist [...] to return to Saudi Arabia.

...prompted by lawmakers’ growing frustration with Trump for defending Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s denials of culpability in Khashoggi’s death

Breaking with the president, [...] McConnell said that the intelligence agency has "basically certified" Saudi involvement at the highest levels.

"I don't have access to everything the president sees ... the intelligence I've seen suggests this was ordered by the crown prince. ... I don't know why he [Trump] is siding with the Saudis."

Trump’s failure to exact accountability for the slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi will resonate far beyond the Middle East.

Pressed on who should be held to account for the murder, the president said that “maybe the world should be held accountable, because the world is a vicious place.”

Some of Trump’s GOP colleagues have warned that not punishing Saudi Arabia for its role in killing a U.S.-based columnist will have dangerous consequences

Denmark follows Germany, which had already indicated its intention to cut off weapons exports to Saudi in late October.

...his willingness to stretch the truth for his own gain is nothing new. But his willingness to stretch the truth in defense of blatant human rights abuses may be.

Nevertheless, much of the coverage of his statement simply takes at face value his assertions that his handling of this issue is driven by American interests — rather than by his own self-interest or the interests of his donors in the defense contracting industry.

On Tuesday, Trump declared he would stand by Saudi Arabia, even though the CIA has reportedly concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's killing.

Amid outcry over writer's killing, dozens of princes and cousins want to see change in line of succession, report says.

Time and time again, President Donald Trump seems to side with dictators over his own intelligence community.

1. Attacking Bill McRaven

...contradicting the Saudi government’s claims that he was not involved in the killing

...saying that a team of Saudi agents dispatched to Istanbul with orders to bring him home alive had instead killed the journalist and dismembered his body.

An audio recording tracking the dying moments of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul has been shared with Saudi Arabia, Britain, France and Germany in addition to the United States

The kingdom sent an expert team to clean up evidence of the crime under the guise of helping with the investigation

...saying Saudi agents strangled him almost immediately after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and then dismembered his body.

Khashoggi worried he might end up in jail like so many other Saudi journalists when he first went to the consulate unannounced on Sept. 28 to request documents he needed to get married.

The prince, who has fallen under suspicion for possibly ordering the killing, discussed the case Wednesday at the "Davos in the Desert" investment forum.

The Saudi government has continued to shift its account of what happened after the Washington Post writer entered its consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

Erdogan of Turkey on Tuesday raised the stakes in his dispute with Saudi Arabia over what he called the “premeditated murder” of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, demanding that Riyadh supply more answers and hand over the Saudi suspects.

...he suggested the White House would need to balance any punishment for the death with its interests in the region.

This strategy has worked brilliantly to keep the anger over the story boiling and overwhelm the efforts of the Saudi regime and its enablers in Washington to contain the scandal.

"It was a flawed body double, so it never became an official part of the Saudi government's narrative"

“Obviously, there’s been deception and there’s been lies,” Mr. Trump said [...]. “Their stories are all over the place.”

Trump, who has cultivated Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and made Saudi Arabia the linchpin of his Middle East strategy, has been deeply reluctant to point a finger at the prince

Mr. Khashoggi was dead within minutes, beheaded, dismembered, his fingers severed, and within two hours the killers were gone, according to details from audio recordings described by a senior Turkish official

"I don’t want to talk about any of the facts," Pompeo said [...] "They didn’t want to either"

The reason Kushner is of particular interest on the disappearance of Khashoggi is that he was a key part of forging a relationship with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and massive arms sale to the kingdom.

Trump downplayed his relationship with Michael Cohen, suggested separating kids from their parents at the border hadn’t been that big a deal, and doubled down on the idea that the Saudis may escape blame for Khashoggi.

Pompeo [...] appeared less intent on determining the truth than in helping the de facto Saudi ruler escape from the crisis he triggered.

If, as the Turkish authorities say, these men were present at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul where Mr. Khashoggi disappeared on Oct. 2, they might provide a direct link between what happened and Prince Mohammed.

But hours before the Turkish forensic team arrived, journalists photographed a cleaning crew entering the consulate, hauling buckets, mops and what appeared to be bottles of cleaning solution. When the Turkish investigators entered the consulate, some wearing white protective gear, they “smelled chemicals had been used”

In introducing the possibility that another party could have been involved in Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance, the president opened a window for King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to stand by their denials

Weapons sales “are certainly going to be a huge concern if” the Saudis are proven responsible for Khashoggi’s vanishing

The killing, if confirmed, would mark a startling escalation of Saudi Arabia’s effort to silence dissent.