As media mammoths and top business leaders cancel plans to attend an upcoming investment conference in Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of a Washington Post columnist earlier this month, the Trump administration is digging its heels in.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday that he has every intention of attending the conference, casually referred to as “Davos in the Desert,” and said he would “look at” new information about the disappearance if it came out before the gathering.
“I am planning on going at this point,” he told CNBC Friday. “If more information comes out and changes, we could look at that, but I am planning on going.”
After the Washington Post reported Thursday that Turkish government officials have audio and video evidence that they say proves the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, was interrogated, tortured and murder by Saudi officials inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, The New York Times, CNN, Uber and several other companies announced they’d be boycotting the event.
Saudi officials maintain they aren’t involved in Khashoggi’s disappearance and claim he left the consulate shortly after entering earlier this month. The dissident Saudi journalist, who entered the consulate to get divorce records so he could marry his new fiancee, has been missing since Oct. 2.
