U.S. intelligence agencies investigating the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi believe it’s inconceivable that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered his death,

Although President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo remain tight-lipped as they weigh the economic impact of slapping Mohammad Bin Salman and his country with sanctions that would limit their lavish spending on American luxury goods, Trump finally acknowledged Thursday that Khashoggi is likely dead.

Behind the scenes, U.S. spy agencies are trying to determine whether the killing was pre-planned or resulted from either an interrogation that went awry or a botched operation to bring him to Saudi Arabia, officials say — and how directly Crown Prince Mohammed was involved.

The current theory is:

Mohammad Bin Salman told his goons to ask Khashoggi nicely to come back to Saudi where they would imprison him for life
Mohammad Bin Salman told the goons if he refused, to ask him nicely to stop creating pieces that are critical of his regime
Mohammad Bin Salman told his goons to make Khashoggi disappear if he did not comply with both of the above, he did not say “kill him”
In the event Khashoggi disappeared, Mohammad Bin Salman would claim some agents EXTREMELY close to the SRF went “ROUGE” despite being the most loyal subjects in the entire country and having all the benefits of that association.

Photo Credit: Hasan Jamali/AP (File)