A member of the Saudi team that killed Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi made a phone call shortly after the journalist’s death, giving instructions to someone in Saudi Arabia to “tell your boss” that the assassination had been carried out, according to people familiar with the call.

The message appears to have been directed to a person overseeing the team that killed Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and then dismembered and disposed of his body, the people said. But, they added, U.S. and European officials are not certain to whom “your boss” refers.

Officials in multiple countries have said they don’t think the journalist could have been killed without the knowledge of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Trump administration’s key ally in the Arab world. But so far, no “smoking gun” has emerged definitively showing Mohammed knew about or ordered the operation, these officials said, and Saudi officials deny that the crown prince was in any way responsible for Khashoggi’s death.

The New York Times first reported on the phone call that relayed the message that Khashoggi had been killed.

The Turkish government allowed CIA Director Gina Haspel to listen to the audio recording of events that took place inside the consulate and to the telephone conversations that took place between the team and Saudi Arabia, a senior Turkish official said. U.S. officials have heard a recording of the call in which a “boss” is referred to, one person familiar with the matter said.

Turkey also thinks the United States has information, possibly including intercepted Saudi communications, beyond what Turkish intelligence has gathered, the person said.

National security adviser John Bolton said Tuesday that the audio recording did not appear to provide any link between the killers and Mohammed. Speaking on the sidelines of a regional summit in Singapore, Bolton said that he has not listened to the recording himself, but that “those who have listened to it” assess that it does not implicate Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler. The crown prince’s father, King Salman is formally the head of the country.

“We categorically deny the reporting referencing the crown prince in this matter or that he had any knowledge whatsoever of it,” a Saudi official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.


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