Journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, said she declined President Trump’s invitation to the White House.
Cengiz told Turkish TV, according to the BBC, that she would not accept the invitation because she feels that Trump is being insincere in the investigation into Khashoggi’s death, adding that she believes the invitation was extended because he wants to influence public opinion.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was murdered earlier this month when he went to a scheduled appointment at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain the proper paperwork to marry Cengiz, his Turkish fiancee.
The green-card-holding Virginia resident was a Saudi dissident.
Initially, Saudi Arabia leadership and the ruling royal family denied any knowledge of or involvement in Khashoggi’s murder and presumed dismemberment.
Although Trump has expressed his discontent with the Saudi account of the incident, he has been hesitant to react because of the U.S.-Saudi relationship.
Cengiz said earlier in Oct. in a New York Times opinion piece that she would accept an invitation to the White House if Trump made a “genuine contribution to the efforts to reveal what happened” to her fiancee that day.