Trump says he protected Saudi leader from scrutiny over murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Woodward book claims

Donald Trump boasted that he protected Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from US scrutiny following the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to new excerpts from Bob Woodward’s upcoming book.

"I saved his a**," Mr Trump bragged in 2018 following the American’s murder, according to an advance copy of Rage obtained by Business Insider.

"I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop."

Mr Khashoggi, a Washington Post writer known for criticising Saudi Arabia, was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2018 where he was assassinated at the personal order of the Crown Prince, according to the Central Intelligence Agency.

In an interview about three months later on 22 January, Mr Woodward told the president that staff at The Washington Post were upset about the gruesome murder.

"Yeah, but Iran is killing 36 people a day, so —" the president began.

Mr Woodward wrote that he steered the conversation back to the murder and continued pressing the president on the Crown Prince’s alleged role in ordering the assassination.

"Well, I understand what you're saying, and I've gotten involved very much. I know everything about the whole situation," Mr Trump is quoted as saying.

"He will always say that he didn't do it," Trump reportedly said of MBS. "He says that to everybody, and frankly I'm happy that he says that. But he will say that to you, he will say that to Congress, and he will say that to everybody. He's never said he did it."

When asked if Trump believed he did it, Mr Woodward writes that the president said the prince insisted that he didn’t.

"I know, but do you really believe —" Mr Woodward began before he was cut off by the president. Mr Trump then added that the Saudi “very strongly” says that he didn't do it.  

“Bob, they spent $400 billion over a fairly short period of time," Mr Trump said, according to the book excerpt.

"And you know, they're in the Middle East. You know, they're big. Because of their religious monuments, you know, they have the real power. They have the oil, but they also have the great monuments for religion. You know that, right? For that religion."

Following Mr Khashoggi’s murder, Mr Trump vetoed a bill to stop American support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting a war in Yemen. He also pushed through an $8 billion arms sale the Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, vetoing resolutions that would have blocked the sale.