[Washington Examiner] Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon Wednesday that the U.S. has "no smoking gun," linking Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi last month in Turkey.Fresh from a joint appearance with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before a closed-door session of the Senate, Mattis insisted there was no direct evidence that the crown prince ordered the killing of the Khashoggi.
"We have no smoking gun that the crown prince was involved, not the intelligence community or anyone else. There is no smoking gun," Mattis said in response to reporters' questions outside the Pentagon as he awaited the arrival of the Lithuanian minister of defense.
"We have not changed [our position] that accountability for the murder is our expectation, of everyone involved in the murder," he said.
Mattis said he has "personally read all the intelligence."
Mattis also said he had not listened to the audio recording of the murder but had read a CIA transcript and was uncertain if the U.S. had a copy of the audio file.
"I cannot understand that language," Mattis said, "but I have read the translation twice."