p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 15.0px Georgia; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} span.s2 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; color: #0463c1} span.s3 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; color: #0463c1; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #0463c1} span.s4 {font-kerning: none; color: #232323; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #232323} President Donald Trump said today that he’s still determining how the White House will respond to the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi from the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last week, after Congress asked the administration to look into potential sanctions against Riyadh.

“We're looking for the answer, and I think probably you'll have an answer sooner than people think,” Trump said.

But Trump placed a caveat on his answer, suggesting he wasn’t willing to let Khashoggi’s disappearance get in the way of the $110 billion in future US arms sales with Saudi Arabia pledged during a 2017 visit to Riyadh, even as influential lawmakers concluded today that the exiled journalist was murdered.

“Again, this took place in Turkey, and to the best of our knowledge, Khashoggi is not a United States citizen,” Trump said, acknowledging the exiled journalist’s permanent resident status. Experts told Al-Monitor that under US law, the federal government cannot prosecute the overseas murder of green-card holders such as Khashoggi.