Trump has done everything he can to avoid implicating the Saudi crown prince in Khashoggi's killing. Today, the Senate could force him to act

Hasan Jamali/AP; Virginia Mayo/AP; Andrew Harnik/AP

A composite image of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and US President Donald Trump. The president has to submit a report determining who was responsible for Khashoggi's death last October.

• President Donald Trump has shied away from directly holding Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last October.
• A bipartisan group of senators in October imposed a 120-day deadline for Trump to identify and punish those behind Khashoggi's disappearance.
• Those 120 days are up on Friday February 8.
• Evidence that Crown Prince Mohammed was behind Khashoggi's killing continues to mount. The Senate, and reportedly the CIA, have already pointed the finger at him.

Friday marks a deadline for President Donald Trump to submit a report to Congress to determine who was responsible for the brutal killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi last October.

A bipartisan group of senators, led by Bob Corker, Bob Menendez, Lindsey Graham, and Patrick Leahy, asked Trump in an October 10 letter to formally identify the people behind Khashoggi's disappearance - as it was determined at the time - within 120 days, and impose sanctions on them.

Friday February 8 marks the end of those 120 days.

Congressional aides have been given no indication that the White House would meet the deadline, Reuters reported.

INSIDER was unable to reach the White House press office on Friday morning, and it did not respond to Reuters' request for comment on Thursday.

Hasan Jamali/AP

Khashoggi in Manama, Bahrain, in December 2014. He died at the hands of Saudi agents in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul.

Khashoggi died at the hands of more than a dozen Saudi agents at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Transcript of an audio recording from his death reportedly describes him gasping for air and saying "I can't breathe."

Saudi prosecutors have long sought to distance the death from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, despite evidence pointing to his culpability.

Read more: Khashoggi's killing was born of a brutal 'Game of Thrones'-style culture around the Saudi crown prince, according to a wild insider account

Leon Neal/Getty Images

Crown Prince Mohammed at number 10 Downing Street in London in March 2018. He is widely believed to be responsible for Khashoggi's death.

The case against MBS

Citing current and former US and foreign officials with knowledge of intelligence reports, The New York Times reported on Thursday that Crown Prince Mohammed had said in 2017 that he would use "a bullet" against Khashoggi if he did not stop publishing critical reports about the kingdom.

Though the crown prince may have been speaking metaphorically, his desire to silence Khashoggi was evident, The Times cited US analysts as saying.

Crown Prince Mohammed also sent at least 11 messages to the adviser to oversaw Khashoggi's killing around the time of the journalist's death, The Wall Street Journal reported in December, citing a classified CIA report.

Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Khashoggi is featured on a poster during a protest at the entrance to Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul on October 2018.

Senators from across party lines, and reportedly the CIA, have directly blamed Crown Prince Mohammed for Khashoggi's killing.

A preliminary UN report on Thursday called Khashoggi "the victim of a brutal and premeditated killing, planned and perpetrated by officials of the State of Saudi Arabia." It did not name Crown Prince Mohammed.

Baroness Helena Kennedy, who was part of the UN team investigating Khashoggi's death, told the BBC's "Today" radio program on Friday that Khashoggi's death "has all the appearances of being of a highly orchestrated and well-planned assassination of someone who is an opponent and a critic of Saudi Arabia.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in November that Khashoggi's killing was ordered by the "highest levels" of the Saudi government.

Saudi prosecutors, meanwhile, have shifted their narrative multiple times. In November they charged 11 suspects over Khashoggi's killing, saying that they had orders to abduct the journalist but ultimately killed him instead.

Riyadh also claimed that Khashoggi's body was dismembered and given to an unnamed local collaborator - an account Turkey doubts is true.

Read more: How the Saudi government's story on slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi has shifted over time

Getty Images

Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed at the White House in March 2018.

Will Trump implicate MBS?

Trump has until now repeatedly covered for Crown Prince Mohammed over Khashoggi's death. He has, instead, touted the value of arms contracts - albeit an inflated one - between Saudi Arabia and Washington, and maintained that the kingdom is "a very good ally."

Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who has a close personal relationship with Crown Prince Mohammed, also avoided naming the crown prince when asked about Khashoggi's killing.

He allegedly advised the monarch on how to "weather the storm" of Khashoggi's death when public critcism was at its height.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

From left to right: Crown Prince (then-Defense Minister) Mohammed, Trump, and Jared Kushner at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh in May 2017.

The Treasury Department in November sanctioned 17 Saudis over their alleged involvement in Khashoggi's killing under the Global Magnitsky Act, which allows the US government to punish human rights offenders by freezing their assets and restricting their travel.

The Treasury sanctions punished Saud al-Qahtani, one of Crown Prince Mohammed's top henchmen, whom Saudi Arabia also blames for perpetrating the killing.

The senators who imposed the Friday deadline on Trump last October also hope to impose sanctions under the Magnitsky Act to whomever Trump would blame for the killing.

Saudi state media in December praised the White House for being "prudent" in its handling of the case.