U.S. President Donald Trump says he has been fully briefed on an audio recording of the killing of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul last month, but has no intention of listening to it because of the violence it depicts.

"It's a suffering tape. It's a terrible tape," Trump told Fox News Sunday in a White House interview that was taped Friday.

"It's very violent, very vicious and terrible," Trump said.

Trump said Saturday the U.S. government would release its findings on the October 2 killing of Khashoggi on Tuesday. The State Department says no final conclusions have been reached, although some U.S. news accounts have reported that the Central Intelligence Agency has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Riyadh's de facto leader, ordered the killing.

Asked in the Fox interview if the crown prince lied to him about his involvement, Trump replied, "I don't know. Who can really know? But I can say this, he's got many people... that say he had no knowledge."

Trump added, "He told me that he had nothing to do with it. He told me that, I would say, maybe five times at different points, as recently as a few days ago."

Saudi Arabia has filed charges against 11 operatives accused of involvement in Khashoggi's killing and said it will seek the death penalty against five of them.

Trump conceded that people close to the prince "were probably involved." But he said, "I want to stick with an ally that in many ways has been very good."

Trump was briefed Saturday on the U.S. investigation of the killing of Khashoggi by telephone by CIA Director Gina Haspel and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo while the president was aboard Air Force One en route to California to inspect the devastation from wildfires in the western state.

The State Department said the U.S. government "is determined to hold all those responsible for the killing... accountable" but that "numerous unanswered questions" remain. (VOA)

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