US Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), who will head the House Intelligence Committee in the next Congress, is set to probe the CIA assessment of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's involvement in the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Khashoggi was a Saudi-born writer who worked for the Washington Post and was known for his vocal criticism of Saudi royal family. He was murdered on October 2 in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
"Certainly we will be delving further into the murder of Khashoggi, and I want to make sure that the committee is fully debriefed on it," Schiff told reporters Friday.
"We will certainly want to examine what the intelligence community knows about the murder," he added.
Interestingly, Schiff referred to the CIA as the US' "best source of information."
"Then it will be quite clear whether the president is relying on the intelligence community and our best source of information or whether the president is representing something very different," Schiff said, referring to the report's release to Congress.
The probe will tell the Congress whether the US President is "making representations to the public that are at odds with what we know," the California Democrat said.
"[It] could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn't," Trump said in his statement Tuesday, adding that "we may never know all of the facts" about the incident.
Later Thursday, Trump commented on the CIA report saying that the agency has not provided enough facts to come up with a firm conclusion.
"They didn't conclude. They did not come to a conclusion. They have feelings certain ways…. Nobody's concluded," Trump said. "I don't know if anyone's going to be able to conclude that the crown prince did."
