The Saudi crown prince called Jamal Khashoggi a dangerous Islamist during a phone call with Jared Kushner and national security adviser John Bolton days after the journalist disappeared last month at the Saudi consulate in Turkey, according to a report on Thursday.
The call from Mohammed bin Salman took place before Saudi Arabia acknowledged that the writer was murdered and urged Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and a White House adviser, and Bolton to maintain the alliance between the US and Saudi Arabia, the Washington Post reported.
The prince said Khashoggi, 59, was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a Middle East group Bolton and members of the Trump administration consider terrorists.
The crown prince’s description of Khashoggi, whose articles for the Washington Post were often critical of the ruling royal family, is at odds with public statements he made about Khashoggi.
“The incident that happened is very painful, for all Saudis,” the crown prince said during an economic conference in Riyadh. “The incident is not justifiable.”
Khashoggi’s family rejected the characterization in a statement to the newspaper.
“Jamal Khashoggi was not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. He denied such claims repeatedly over the past several years,” the statement said. “Jamal Khashoggi was not a dangerous person in any way possible. To claim otherwise would be ridiculous.”
A Saudi official acknowledged that phone calls between the prince and US officials are likely but denied the royal made such comments.
The Saudi government gave a number of conflicting explanations for Khashoggi’s death before finally saying he died after getting into a fistfight with Saudi agents after entering the consulate on Oct. 2.
