Pompeo: ‘Handful more weeks’ before US can respond to Khashoggi slaying

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says it could be several weeks before the U.S. formally responds to the death of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post journalist killed in a Saudi consulate in Turkey weeks ago.

In an interview Thursday with a St. Louis radio station, Pompeo said it could be a “handful” of weeks before the U.S. responds to Khashoggi’s killing with sanctions on individuals involved, as the administration is still in the process of gathering evidence, Reuters reports.

{mosads}The Trump administration is “reviewing putting sanctions on the individuals that we have been able to identify to date that … were engaged in that murder,” Pompeo told KMOX, according to Reuters.

The U.S. has already revoked the visas of the men suspected to have been involved in Khashoggi’s murder inside the consulate.

President Trump has vowed that the U.S. will “get to the bottom” of the U.S.-based columnist’s death, and stated earlier this month after a conversation with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that he was “not satisfied” with the Saudi government’s official explanation for his death.

The Saudi government originally said that Khashoggi left the consulate after entering, before later saying that he died inside as a result of a fight that broke out between the journalist and more than a dozen men.

Trump has also said, however, that any U.S. response will not jeopardize long-standing business relationships with Saudi Arabia.

“I don’t want to lose all of that investment that’s being made in our country. I don’t want to lose a million jobs,” Trump told reporters at the White House earlier this month.