Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, in 2017 had told an aide that he will go after Khashoggi "with a bullet". The journalist was killed a year later inside Saudi's Istanbul consulate.
US intelligence understood that Mohammed bin Salman, the country's 33-year-old de facto ruler, was ready to kill the journalist, although he may not have literally meant to shoot him, according to the New York Times. Saudi initially denied any knowledge about Khashoggi's disappearance, but acknowledged that a team killed him inside the diplomatic mission but described it as a rogue operation that did not involve the crown prince.
The conversation was intercepted by US intelligence agencies, as part of routine efforts by the National Security Agency and other agencies to capture and store the communications of global leaders, including allied ones.
President Trump however, has shown little interest in trying to find out who is responsible. The intercepted conversation has only been recently transcribed, because of mounting efforts by US intelligence to find more conclusive proof linking the prince to the killing.
The Saudi Prince is a close ally of the Trump White House, especially Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser.
The conversation that took place in September 2017, took place between the Prince and an aide, Turki Aldakhil. The prince said that if Khashoggi could not be enticed to return to Saudi Arabia, then he should be brought back by force. And if neither of those methods worked, then he would go after Mr. Khashoggi "with a bullet," he said.
Officials in the kingdom were growing increasingly angry about Khashoggi's criticisms — and the same month he began writing opinion pieces for The Washington Post.
