Trump is giving Saudi Arabia the benefit of the doubt, despite signs that there was likely high-level Saudi government involvement.

Journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s final Washington Post column was published on Wednesday night. His editor, Karen Attiah, wrote that the newspaper staff received the column weeks ago, but wanted to wait to publish the column until she could edit it alongside Khashoggi. But recent developments revealed that would be unlikely. “Now I have to accept: That is not going to happen,” Attiah wrote. “This is the last piece of his I will edit for The Post.”

On October 4, The Washington Post published an editorial commenting on how the paper hadn’t heard from Khashoggi since he entered a Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Within two days, information was leaked that the columnist and father of four had been killed.

As reported by CNN, sources in Turkey say Khashoggi died during an “interrogation” by Saudi operatives that went wrong. The journalist entered the Saudi consulate, located in Istanbul, on October 2. Surveillance video footage confirms this. His fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, was waiting outside, but she said he never returned.

According to the Associated Press, on Monday, October 15, Turkish officials said there’s evidence that Khashoggi was killed by Saudi agents and his body dismembered. A report by the Middle East Eye said that, according to a Turkish source, the dismembering happened while Khashoggi was alive and that it took seven minutes. Saudi officials said the claim was “baseless.”

CNN reported that Turkish authorities said they have audio footage of Khashoggi being killed, causing international pressures to build in anticipation of an explanation for his disappearance. As noted by The New York Times, during a phone call on October 15, Saudi Arabian King Salman denied having knowledge of what happened to Khashoggi, and President Donald Trump made it known that he believed him.

“It wasn’t like there was a question in his mind. The denial was very strong,” Trump told reporters outside the White House, according to CNN.

“The President made it clear earlier in the day during the interview with Fox that the administration would find it acceptable if King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman were found to be unaware of the killing,” CNN reported. “Even as signs point to close ties between the crown prince and members of a group of 15 Saudis believed to be connected to Khashoggi’s disappearance.”

The president sent Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for a meeting with King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Pompeo reportedly flew 12 hours to spend about 15 minutes with the king and 30 to 45 minutes with the crown prince, followed by dinner, CNNreported.

So why did this happen? Some — including Khashoggi’s employer — believe it is because as a reporter, he wasn’t “just any commentator.”

“Over a long career, he had close contact with Saudi royalty and knows more than most about how they think and function,” The Washington Post editorial board wrote. The board also noted that Khashoggi’s criticism likely annoyed bin Salman, who became crown prince last year and is not a friend to the media.

“Among those in [bin Salman’s] prisons for political speech are clerics, bloggers, journalists, and activists. He imprisoned women who agitated for the right to drive, a right that was granted even as they were punished.”

This is an important detail because President Trump is infamous for his professed disdain for journalists, repeatedly calling them the “enemy of the people.” And now, he’s tasked with the responsibility of deciding what sanctions or other punishment to impose on Saudi leaders.

“In a world where the Saudis could kill and butcher a columnist for an American newspaper as if that was going to be no big deal, we just can’t have a president who consistently refers to American journalists as the enemy of the people,” New York Times columnist Charles Blow tweeted on Tuesday.

On the following day, Trump and Pompeo continued to defend Saudi Arabia, saying there needs to be time for a proper investigation. “I just want to find out what’s happening,” Trump said on Wednesday. “With that being said, Saudi Arabia has been a very important ally of ours in the Middle East.”

“We need Saudi Arabia,” Trump told reporters. He has been quick to defend U.S.-Saudi relations, as noted by CNN, having valued an arms deal between the countries at $110 billion, despite only $14.5 billion trickling in so far. And Pompeo has been on the same page.

“I do think it’s important that everyone keep in their mind that we have lots of important relationships — financial relationships between U.S. and Saudi companies, governmental relationships, things we work on together all across the world, the efforts to [counter Iran],” Pompeo told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday. “Those are important elements of U.S. national policy that are in Americans’ best interest and we just need to make sure that we are mindful of that as we approach decisions that the United States government will take when we learn all of the facts associated with whatever may have taken place.”

But it’s hard to ignore the other reasons Trump may want to preserve Saudi relations. Despite denying having a personal financial interest in Saudi Arabia, a piece by Fox News showed otherwise, detailing transactions as recent as last year.

During a 2015 rally for his presidential candidacy, Trump bragged about his alliance.

“Saudi Arabia — and I get along great with all of them. They buy apartments from me,” he said. “They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.”

Articles by Business Insider, CNN, and The Washington Post have all detailed the president’s financial interests with Saudi Arabia as well.

As recently as March of this year, members of bin Salman’s entourage stayed at the Trump International Hotel in New York, according to Business Insider. The stay caused hotel quarterly profits to go up 13%.

The United Kingdom, France, and Germany have all demanded a “credible investigation” into Khashoggi’s disappearance, and Saudi officials have threatened retaliation if the United States places sanctions, but it later softened its tone, CNN reported. There’s also tension between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, with Turkey repeatedly accusing the Saudis of failing to cooperate with its investigation.

When addressing why the United States seemed to give Saudi Arabia the benefit of the doubt — despite signs that there was likely high-level Saudi involvement, according to experts — Pompeo said “it is reasonable to give them a handful of days more to complete it [the investigation], so they get it right, so that it’s thorough and complete.”

On Tuesday, the president compared wanting to wait before putting blame on Saudi Arabia to now–Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, at which he was accused of sexually assaulting Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. “Here we go again with you know you’re guilty until proven innocent,” Trump said. “I don’t like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh, and he was innocent all the way as far as I’m concerned. So we have to find out what happened.” (For the record, neither the confirmation hearing nor the investigation was a criminal trial.)

Khashoggi’s disappearance and alleged death have sparked outrage from a mix of voices, including politicians, journalists, and advocacy groups across the world.

“If this is true — that the Saudis lured a U.S. resident into their consulate and murdered him — it should represent a fundamental break in our relationship with Saudi Arabia,” Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) wrote on Twitter. He also penned an op-ed on the subject for The Washington Post. Summer Lopez, senior director for press freedom group PEN America, called for those responsible for Khashoggi’s alleged murder to be held accountable. “If Khashoggi was indeed murdered inside a diplomatic facility, it is an act of terror that echoes Russian and Chinese tactics of extraterritorial, extrajudicial attacks on dissidents, intended to intimidate any who would speak out against the Saudi government, no matter where they may be, and giving the lie to official narratives of ‘reform’ in Saudi Arabia,” Lopez said, according to the Associated Press. The Society of Professional Journalists joined 42 additional journalism and press-freedom organizations to urge Ambassador Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz to launch a full investigation on Khashoggi’s disappearance, saying,“The threat of violence, kidnapping, or death to any journalist who is seeking the truth and reporting it is dangerous to freedom and democracy around the world. It is of utmost importance that officials do everything in their power to find Khashoggi, return him to his fiancée and family, and hold those responsible for his disappearance accountable.” The Washington Post‘s CEO and publisher Fred Ryan also issued a statement this week. On October 16, Ryan said the Saudi government “can no longer remain silent” and that “it cannot be business as usual” with Saudi Arabia until an explanation is given. Khashoggi’s final column for The Washington Post, published on October 17, focused on the importance of a free Arab press.

“The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events,” Khashoggi wrote. “More important, we need to provide a platform for Arab voices. We suffer from poverty, mismanagement, and poor education. Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face.”