The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal have stories on the CIA finding that Mohammed bin Salman ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. As in other apparent intelligence community leaks, two major newspapers got the information pretty much simultaneously.
The assessment is said to be of “high confidence,” which means that the CIA would bet a lot of money on it. Or as someone wisecracked on Twitter, it means “we have tapes.”
That makes things complicated for Donald Trump and John Bolton, who have been hoping everyone would forget it.
*****
In another leak, the heroic Daniel Dale, the head of the Toronto Star’s Washington Bureau and indefatigable fact-checker of Trump’s words, tweets about Melania Trump’s trip to Toronto last year.
Quartz: Melania Trump incurred $174,000 in hotel bills during her trip to Toronto last year, though she did not stay overnight. That’s separate from $18,000 for her advance team. https://t.co/0RFbWnJzOf
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 16, 2018
Do you think this had anything to do with Melania’s trashing Mira Ricardel over her trip to Africa?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Friday News Dump – Leak Edition and Open ThreadPost + Comments (119)