actually have to pay for these alleged crimes, that they actually will face these charges physically? that s an important point because the individual charged in this case is believed to be located in russia. so this person is very unlikely to come to the united states. the question that that begs is then what s the point of bringing a case like this in public? i think what it is is the government has obviously decided as part of its whole of government response to the russian election interference and influenced campaign, it is going to use criminal prosecution as one tool to be able to address that. and the way that they do that is they are exposing publicly both for the russian government and thos enti those entities and person who is have been involved in these activities, as well as other global players who might be thinking of doing the same activities is that we, the united states government, know what you re doing, we know
reporter: complicating the matter, the administration, with the guidance of son-in-law jared kushner, has put a lot of hope in saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman, who was hailed as a reformer. but more recently, he s criticized for his imprisonment of critics and now the question of whether he was involved in the khashoggi case. there are lots of flashing red signs that this was a reckless individual to be doing business with. but they ignored it all. reporter: khashoggi was a sharp critic of the prince. still the president s defenders are pressing on. donald trump is keep his eye on the ball. keeping his eye on the geopolitical ball. the national security ball. he s trying to figure out a way out, is what he s doing. reporter: the washington
investigation. and that we re to be quiet so we don t interfere with this investigation. reporter: and for one year, they didn t hear anything from anyone. and then suddenly, one year later, gina nichols gets a call from the fbi. i m really glad that you re calling me now. but i said, i reported this a year ago. and why are you calling me now? honestly, why has it taken this long? he said, i just got this assignment yesterday. and i said, oh, okay. so why didn t usa gymnastics has said they already contacted fbi and indianapolis months and months ago. i haven t heard one thing. he goes, all he said about that was, i have no idea what that is. i don t work in indianapolis. i work in l.a. out of this fbi bureau. reporter: now, we do have a response to all of this from steve penny s attorney, and she says, quote, this is absurd. mr. penny had no authority to
analyst. carr carrie, let me get your reaction about the charges, interfering with the midterm elections. i m working my way through that was brought in the eastern district of virginia and by the national security division of the john mccai the justice department. this was a case that was farmed out. i think that s important because it shows that the united states government investigations into russian interference or other countries who may be involved in activities online to try to influence u.s. democratic processes and institutions is going to outlive whatever the special counsel s investigation is. these activities continue to be pervasive by these foreign nt i entities and the justice department is going to continue to investigate them for a long time i would expect. so this case pertains to one individual who, as laura just
terrorist. khashoggi was photographed carrying an a.k.-47. any journalist worth their salt would have vjumped to interview bin laden at the time. alex, thank you. president trump said he wants any audio and video evidence connected to the khashoggi case, quote, if it exists. joining us now, david priest, former intelligence officer and author of the president s book of secrets. do you think the saudis have been forthcoming of what they know? i don t think so. and that s actually a good thing. if they did collect such intelligence in a realtime manner, if you reveal that now, you give up some of those sources. those same sources might be very valuable, whether it s human collection, information coming from spies or whether it s