Pompeo moves to Turkey in search for answers on missing journalist

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday met with Turkey’s president and foreign minister in Ankara as the United States attempts to learn what happened to Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist who was last seen more than two weeks ago.

Pompeo met for about 40 minutes each with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, according to The Associated Press, which reported that details from their talks were not immediately available. 

{mosads}Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was last seen inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. 

Turkish authorities are hoping to enter the consul’s residence on Wednesday and search it as part of their investigation into Khashoggi’s disappearance.

“We hope the police will enter to the residence today. We have said before that Saudi Arabia must cooperate with us in every aspect without delay,” Çavuşoğlu said, according to Reuters.

Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi was killed and likely dismembered by Saudi officials inside the consulate.

A number of U.S. lawmakers have also said Saudi Arabia appears to be complicit in Khashoggi’s disappearance, but President Trump has yet to blame the Saudis.

Trump, who earlier this week suggested that “rogue killers” may be to blame for Khashoggi’s disappearance, offered a defense of Saudi Arabia in an interview Tuesday with the AP.

“I think we have to find out what happened first,” he said. “Here we go again with, you know, you’re guilty until proven innocent. I don’t like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I’m concerned.”