Tape Doesn't Implicate Prince MBS, NSA Bolton Says

The phone recording of the member Saudia Arabia's kill team where he said "tell your boss . . . the deed is done" – first reported by The New York Times – does not implicate Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), according to National Security Adviser John Bolton.

The Wall Street Journal reported Bolton told reporters Tuesday he had not heard the recording from Turkey but U.S. officials have drawn no conclusions on it connecting Saudi Arabia's defacto day-to-day leader to the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, who was a contributor to The Washington Post.

"That's not the conclusion that I think the people who heard it have come to," Bolton reportedly said during a Singapore news conference.

The recording has been shared with Germany, France, the U.K., the U.S., and Saudi Arabia, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday, per the report.

"We categorically deny the reporting referencing the crown prince in this matter or that he had any knowledge whatsoever of it," a Saudi official told the Journal on Tuesday. "Despite our multiple requests, the Turkish authorities have not provided us with the recordings, however, they allowed our intelligence services to hear recordings and at no moment was there any reference to the mentioned phrase in those recordings."

The phone call was in Arabic and reported translations have Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, a security officer with connections to Crown Prince MBS – and one of 15 Saudis in Istanbul, Turkey, during Khashoggi's murder – saying the phrases "tell your boss" and "the deed is done," the Times reported.

"We expect that they will continue the investigation and that's very important to us and it's very important to others in the region, too," Bolton reportedly added Tuesday. "The president has made it very clear that he expects that we're going to get the truth from the Saudis.

. . . The president also has said that this is an incredibly important relationship that he wants to sustain and that he doesn't see that affecting the arms sales."

• Turkey: 'Atrocious' Recording Suggests Killer Used Drugs
• Trudeau Confirms Canada Heard Khashoggi Recordings