Donald Trump defended Saudi’s Mohammed bin Salman over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi to keep the spotlight off revelation Ivanka was using private email account, John Bolton claims
- President Trump backed Saudi’s Crown Prince in the aftermath of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder to distract reporters from covering Ivanka Trump
- Former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s new book said Trump put out an exclamation mark-filled statement to ‘divert from Ivanka’
- The president purposely pushed back on the CIA’s assessment that Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi’s assassination
- The day before, Ivanka Trump was in the news for using a private email account for government business, which was Trump’s attack line against Hillary Clinton
- ‘If I read the statement in person, that will take over the Ivanka thing,’ Bolton quoted Trump saying in his memoir, ‘The Room Where It Happened’
President Trump backed Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the aftermath of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder to distract reporters from covering Ivanka Trump‘s use of a private email server, a new book claims.
Early copies of John Bolton’s ‘The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,’ were obtained Wednesday by The New York Times and The Washington Post.
In the book, Bolton, Trump’s third national security adviser, suggested that some of the president’s more erratic behavior was designed to serve as a diversion.
President Trump sent out a statement backing Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the aftermath of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder to distract reporters from covering Ivanka Trump’s use of private email, John Bolton’s new book claims
On November 20, 2018, Trump wrote that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (left) ‘could very well … had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!’ referring to Jamal Khashoggi’s (right) murder, which the CIA said the Crown Prince ordered
John Bolton, the former national security adviser, wrote in his new book that the statement was by design, as President Trump (left) wanted to distract journalists from writing about Ivanka Trump (right) using private email with government officials
Early copies of John Bolton’s memoir, ‘The Room Where It Happened,’ leaked to the press Wednesday. The book is out Tuesday
Bolton recalled the November 2018 controversy over Khashoggi’s death.
Khashoggi was a Washington Post op-ed writer and a resident of the U.S.
He also was a critic of the Saudi regime.
He went missing after walking into the Saudi consulate in Turkey on October 2.
A month later, the CIA determined that the Crown Prince, who has a close relationship with White House adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, had given the order for Khashoggi’s assassination.
On November 20, the president read an exclamation-mark-filled statement essentially letting the Crown Prince off the hook.
‘Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!’ Trump had said.
‘That being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi,’ Trump continued. ‘In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.’
Behind-the-scenes, Bolton wrote, Trump decided to issue the statement because on November 19 the story broke that first daughter and White House adviser Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails to government officials using a personal email account.
Government officials are supposed to use government email accounts for government business, so the messages can be archived and proper security measures are in place.
‘This will divert from Ivanka,’ Trump said of the statement, according to Bolton’s book. ‘If I read the statement in person, that will take over the Ivanka thing.’
Ivanka’s use of a private email account looked hypocritical after Trump paid great attention to rival Hillary Clinton’s use of her private email server during her tenure as President Obama’s secretary of state.