Trump Welcomes Home Pastor Andrew Brunson but Denies Link to Saudi Case

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump welcomed home Saturday an American pastor freed by Turkey and said the release would improve relations with Ankara, but he denied any connection to the dispute between Turkey and Saudi Arabia over missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

With television cameras on hand to record the event, Trump invited the pastor, Andrew Brunson, to the Oval Office roughly an hour after he had landed back in the United States. In an emotional moment, Brunson asked if he could pray for Trump, then knelt next to him and asked God to give the president “supernatural wisdom.”

Brunson’s sudden release after two years in detention came as the Turkish government was seeking help from Trump in its confrontation with Saudi Arabia over the disappearance and apparent murder of Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post and critic of the royal family. Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul but never emerged, and Turkish officials said he was killed and dismembered with a bone saw.

Turkey is looking for the United States to back it up in forcing Saudi Arabia to account for Khashoggi’s fate, but Trump insisted Saturday that Brunson’s release was not related. “The timing is a strict coincidence,” Trump told reporters. “It really is.”

Brunson’s case had become a cause célèbre among religious conservatives, and Trump embraced it. He credited the pressure he had put on Turkey for Brunson’s release, but said he had agreed to no deal. “The only deal, if you could call it a deal, is a psychological one,” he said. “We feel much differently about Turkey today than we did yesterday.”

That may be exactly what Turkey wanted, given the clash over Khashoggi, but Trump made clear once again that he had no immediate or specific plans to take action against Saudi Arabia. He again rejected the idea of canceling or postponing arms sales on the grounds that it would cost U.S. businesses money and jobs, and he made no move to cancel Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s coming trip to Saudi Arabia for an investment conference, even though several U.S. businesses are pulling out.

In an interview with “60 Minutes” to be aired on CBS on Sunday, Trump said “there will be severe punishment” if Saudi Arabia is found to have ordered the killing of Khashoggi, but neither in the interview nor in his comments to reporters Saturday did he suggest what such punishment would look like. Instead, he extolled the virtues of an arms sales deal he cut with Saudi Arabia during a visit last year.

“I worked very hard to get the order for the military,” he said. “If they don’t buy it from us, they’re going to buy it from Russia or they’re going to buy it from China or they’re going to buy it from somebody else.” Canceling the sales, he said, “I actually think we would be punishing ourselves if we did that.”

Trump said that he had received a letter from Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, and that he had invited her to meet with him. He said that he planned to call King Salman of Saudi Arabia later Saturday or Sunday to ask him about Khashoggi’s disappearance.

He said he had not heard tapes that purportedly capture Khashoggi being tortured and murdered but acknowledged, as he has in recent days, that it seemed likely that he was dead. “At this point, it’s looking like he perhaps won’t be or isn’t around, and that’s very sad,” Trump said. “I think we would have known by now.”

Saudi Arabia once again denied Saturday any involvement in Khashoggi’s disappearance. The interior minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif bin Abdulaziz, said in a statement that “what has been circulating in terms of supposed orders to kill Jamal are outright lies and baseless allegations against the kingdom’s government, which is committed to its principles, rules and traditions and is in compliance with international laws and conventions.”

Brunson’s case generated pressure on Trump from religious leaders and the president, Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress from both parties took it up. The president imposed sanctions on Turkey and Trump said Saturday that he had spoken about the case with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “at least once a day.”

An evangelical pastor who ran the small Resurrection Church in Izmir, Brunson, 50, and his wife, Norine, lived in Turkey for two dozen years. He was arrested in October 2016, accused of spying and aiding terrorists and sentenced to three years, one month and 15 days in prison. He was released into house arrest in July and a Turkish judge Friday reduced his sentence to time served, after which Brunson was quickly flown out of the country.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey stressed Saturday that the release was authorized by the courts, not the government. “Honorable President @realDonaldTrump, as I have always emphasized, the Turkish judiciary has given its decision independently,” he wrote in Turkish on Twitter. “I hope that Turkey and USA will continue the cooperation worthy of two allies.” The reaction in Turkey to the release was otherwise muted. The government played down the event, a sign of its discomfort since Brunson had long been vilified by the Turkish news media as a terrorist and a spy.

Yet the anti-American, nationalist posture that has been increasingly adopted by the Turkish government, and by Erdogan himself, since a failed coup in 2016, will not be easily reversed. “Never come back again!” the pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak screamed in a headline Saturday.

Erdogan’s coalition partner, Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party, accused the United States of using blackmail to win Brunson’s release and said the decision had “disturbed the national conscience.”

“Pastor Brunson has been released after a dark, unacceptable process to which everyone with a conscience objects,” he said in a statement to the Turkish news media. He called on the United States to hand over Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric blamed by Turkey for orchestrating the coup attempt two years ago from his self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, or to extradite Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a Turkish banker imprisoned in May for conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran.

“The moment Pastor Brunson departs for USA, those whose extradition is morally and legally obligatory must be sent to our country,” Bahceli said.

Appearing in the Oval Office in a dark suit, white shirt and blue tie, Brunson appeared healthy and in good spirits. He expressed no bitterness and thanked Trump and other U.S. officials.

“We do love Turkey,” he said. “We were there for 25 years and we love the Turkish people.”

Brunson asked the president if he could pray for him and Trump agreed. Brunson knelt next to the president and put his hand on Trump’s shoulder, closed his eyes and looked down. “I ask that you give him wisdom to lead this country into righteousness,” Brunson said.

Norine Brunson then added a prayer of her own for the president. Trump thanked them both and then addressed Norine Brunson. “Could I ask you one question?” he said. “Who did you vote for?”

She indicated that she had voted for him.

“I knew the answer,” he said with a smile.

Andrew Brunson added, “I sent in an absentee ballot from prison.”