The cnn newsroom starts right now. 4 00 a. M. On the u. S. East coast. The finger pointing to the Saudi Crown Prince for ordering the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, that is the word from the cia according to sources. It is based in evidence analyzed by the cia, evidence including a phone call where the princes brother urged khashoggi to go to the konsz lconsulate in istanbu. But he denies making that call. The saudi government says it has shifted its story, you have seen it shift a bit, since khashoggi disappeared, but it has remained firm that the crown prince was not involved. Lets go liv live to ben weedsd following the story. Weve heard a flat denial and even a dare to make that are information public. Reporter yeah, what weve heard is a spokeswoman for the Saudi Embassy in washington, d. C. Saying they have heard a lot of versions of events, but they have yet to see the actual evidence with which these claims are based upon. Which is just another denial from the saudis of what is a steady stream of damning revelations about the second of october murder of Jamal Khashoggi. What were seeing of course is this report from the cia or claims by sources at the cia that saudi ambassador to the United States had a phone conversation with Jamal Khashoggi in which he told him that in order to obtain the papers that would allow him to remarry, he should go to momentum and assured him that he would be safe in doing so. Now according to this report in the Washington Post, he made this phone call at the direction of his brother crown prince know hachl mknow knmohammad bin salman. Certainly this is the latest indication that indeed the crown prince was aware of this operation despite the fact that the saudi attorney general is saying that this was a rogue operation that went disastrously wrong. Is there any indication that any of this new information somehow puts the crown brinss role in jeopardy . Reporter certainly tarnishes his reputation that has really been under a magnifying glass since the beginning of the saga around the death of Jamal Khashoggi. But according to the New York Times and the Washington Post and cnns own reporting, u. S. Officials believe that he will remain in power. But it certainly creates a pariah status for the young crown prince who has pain the effective leader of saudi arabia now for several years given that his father king salman is in very poor health and it is believed that he is suffering from dementia. So certainly we know that President Trump wants him to remain in power given that he sees him as a key player for instance in the struggle against iran. Jared kushner the soninlaw of President Trump is also very close with mohammad bin salman. And of course we have heard word from the white house that sometime early next year the u. S. Plans on putting out its socalled deal of the century to resolve the arab israeli conflict. And that saudi arabia is supposed to in theory play a central role in that. All of that is now up in the air and in doubt given the belief clearly from the cia that mohammad bin salman was the man who ultimately ordered of jamal. A lot of the evidence seems to be contrary to the evolving story that weve heard from saudi arabia. Ben wedeman, thank you for the reporting. Well keep in touch with you. Lets talk more about this now with Global Affairs analyst aaron david miller, he is a distinguished scholar. Good to have you with us. This assessment from the cia points the finger directly at the Saudi Crown Prince. How significant an impact will this have . I think that it will bring the administration to a proverbial moment of truth. For the last 40 plus days since khashoggi entered the saudi koch consulate in istanbul, the administration has been trying to figure out a way how to navigate through this, maintain a relationship that they believe is very critical to its oil policy, its arms sales policies, on one hand, and how to avoid having to take dramatic and punitive action against saudi arabia on the other if it were proven that in fact mohammad bin salman aka mbs ordered or had direct foreknowledge of this pragt operation. The Administration Im sure was aware of most of this. It has now become public, which means that it will be an issue for congress, the media and the International Community as well. So i think that the administration is reaching a point where it will have to decide how to act. It has already sanctioned 17 individuals, but clearly that didnt pass the Washington Post test in congress and frankly u. S. saudi relationship is out of control and administration will have to reset it. Before this, turkey had been putting a great deal of pressure given that it holds the cards to this investigation. How does that scare with tquare u. S. President trying to find a way to remove gulen in order to possibly ease pressure on saudi arabia . If that report is true, and nbc had reported it out, it may have been a suggestion, i doubt frankly, it is one of the dumbest ideas ive ever heard. I work for half a dozen secretaries of state and came up with a number of hair brained schemes, but nothing in an effort to placate erdogan, placate one authoritarian to get another authoritarian off the hook. I mean, it is a fundamental undermining in both American Values and interests and i doubt frankly if the administration would even consider seriously acting on turning gulen over to the turks in order to persuade erdogan who is in a bitter rivalry with saudi arabia for a number of reasons. An context is very important here. Does the president take the cia assessment seriously given that he has discounted his own intelligence agencies many times in the past . Does that give him some political room here to get out of this . Yeah, i think youve identified a critical issue. Is the idea going to take issue with cia and the rest of the Intelligence Community and try to figure out a way to discount this report or downgrade it or trivialize it and somehow bet bin salman off the hook. That is the pattern over the last 18 months. Attack the intelligence reports and analysis that didnt square with his view of the world or what his sensibilities and predilections were. I think that it will be extremely difficult given the horrific nature of this crime, given the fact that the saudis have been lying on this from the very beginning, the most recent saudi report went back to the notion that the killing of Jamal Khashoggi was accidental, it was supposed to be a rendition back to saudi arabia and the dismemberment of his body was something that was done on the spot without authority from riyadh. I think the world knows it, i think Congress Knows it. The real question is whether the administration is prepared to act. Aaron david miller, thank you for your time. George, thank you. Now to the fives burning in the state of california. Three hours from now, the u. S. President leaves the white house to head out west to meet with survivors of the worst wildfires in that States History and the death toll there continues to rise. Eight more bodies have been discovered in Northern California. That means that 74 people have now died in these fires. And the list of the missing, it continu continues to grow. More than 1,000 names are listed. Nick watt has the latest. I am loyal to paradise. It is like a tether. My heart is tethered to that town. I value that town and the people and everybody i knew there, everybody i helped there. They just meant so much to me. I blossomed when i moved to paradise. Reporter right now central and Northern California has the worst air quality in the world. Smoke lingering in a 250 50 mile radius, today schools as far away as San Francisco still closed due to that danger, classes canceled on College Campuses in sacramento and berkeley. Firefighters have battled 500 blazes in the state in just the past 30 days alone. Californias governor says this is the new abnormal. Going forward we are going to have to take a lot of steps that arent so easy. Were to ha going to have to manage our forests better, build our cities more smartly, well have to build shelters so people can escape when the terrible fires get out of hand and, yes, well have to deal with climate change. Reporter meanwhile 145 advanta evacuees are suffering from neurovirus. Health officials are working to create separate shelters for the sick. Butte county with 10 of its homes now turned to ash, facing crisis. So we have a town of approximately 14,000 houses and associated commercial activity that has literally been burned off the man. Reporter exactly what sparked these fires is still under investigation. Up in the north of california, people are pointing the feinger at the local Utility Company claiming that faulty equipment started the blaze. Here in the south, authorities have said that the smaller hill fire was caused by human activity, unclear if that was accidental or arson. Nick watt, cnn, west lake village, california. And again firefighters are making some progress with regards to containment, but smoke is now the issue and so dangerous when it comes to breathing that smoke. Derri derek van dam is here to us about it. At one point friday morning they had the three most pluts pd cities in the entire world over beijing, delhi, mumbai. Look at this map. You have seen the fire burn, but look how the smoke emanates over the western u. S. It is all about the wind directions in the upper levels and of course the cloud cover is obviously smog and smoke, such a toxic mixture of particles and drop lets released from the wildfire itself. And it has put a thick haze over the San Francisco bay region. Look at the man behind me, this is the air quality index values. And just a snapshot of what it is like, the quality of the air that you and i breathe. If you are located on the west coast, you know that it has been chokingly difficult to breathe the air lately because of the fires burning out of control. It has been more hazardous, the least air quality, than northeast china, a hot spot for smog. I know this is a very busy map, but the bottom line is we actually had worse air quality index in Northern California than northeast china on friday morning. Why does it matter to you and me . Because the particulate from the wildfire smoke is so small, it can penetrate deep within our lungs and elderly to Young Children or people with asthma, obviously they have a hard time breathing. And we have an air quality alert being a quos tacross the entire valley. The woolsey fire is expected to be distinguishextinguisheded byt the Silver Lining is that there is rain in the forecast continuing into early next week. Look at the precipitation move in, we have a dry spot for the first half of the week, but after thanksgiving, we should get snow in the mountains and rain in the valleys ending effectively our fire season in called cal. They will take the rain. Thank you. Still ahead here, chief White House Correspondent returns to the white house for thousand. Well look at the lawsuit that do keep one of our koernltds t correspondents out of the house. What is at stake a, well tell you about it. And plus britains embattled Prime Minister determined to get her brexit plan through even as her own political future hangs in the balance. Live around the world and in the u. S. , youre watching newsroom. I tell everyonif you want to get ancestrydna tethe most details about your family history. My pie chart showed that im from all over europe, but then it got super specific. I learned my people came from a small region in poland, and even a little bit of the history about why they might have migrated during that time. Those migration patterns are more than just lines on a map, theyre really your familys story. This holiday, give the gift thats connected millions to a deeper family story. Order your kit at ancestry. Com another antiwrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair works in just one week. With the fastest retinol formula to visibly reduce wrinkles. Neutrogena®. President trump says he has answered written questions from Robert Mueller about possibly collusion with russia. The answers have not been returned back to mueller. The president pretty up with his legal team at least three days this week, but he says that he answered the questions himself. I write the answers. My lawyers dont write answers. I write answers. I was asked a series of questions. Ive answered them very easily. Very easily. Im sure they are tricked up because they like to catch people, gee, you know, was the weather sunny or rainy. He said it may have been a good day about th day. It was raining, so therefore he perjured himself. You always have to be careful when you answer questions when people probably have bad intentions. There should have never been any Mueller Investigation because there was no collusion, there never has been. You would have known about it a long time ago if there was. They should have never had it. They wasted millions and millions of dollars. There should have never been a socalled investigation. And another story around this white house, around my colleague jim acosta. He is now back in the white house, the press room, thanks to judges ruling. The Trump Administration had revoked the press pass after a Heated Exchange with President Trump. Brian stelter reports that the decision is only round one. This has been a day unlike any with jim acosta being granted his press pass back after a nine day battle between cnn and the white house. Of course all of this started at that post midterms press conference when acosta and President Trump had a combative exchange. A few hours later, acosta found out the secret service was taking away his press pass. We dont know exactly who made that call. Perhaps it was President Trump. But this was fought over in court this week with cnn filing a federal lawsuit alleging first and fifth amendment violations. Today in court judge kelly granted cnns request for a temporary retraining ordstraini which forced the white house to return the press pass. Kelly said he was granting it based on the fifth amendment violations. Basically that acostas Due Process Rights were violated you because he wasnt given any notice. The judge did not rule on the freedoms of the press. That might come later during further litigation. But now the ball is kind of back in the white houses court. It is unclear if the administration will continue the legal battle or if it is more quietly settle out of court. I spoke with a cnn lawyer who says that cnn would be happy to resolve this in a peaceful way and not have to return to court for the remaining weeks and months that this case would go on, but that cnn will continue its litigation if the white house puts up a fight or tries to take away acostas press pass again. As for the administration, President Trump says that they will come up with new rules and regulations to govern the behavior of White House Correspondents. He says he doesnt want anybody to behave badly during news conferences. If so, he might just walk out. But the realty is that the president enjoys the whixh exch with reporters. So interesting to see if they come up with new regulations to govern the behavior. And of course if they seem radical, cnn will end up right back in court. But for now acosta is back at work endingi a strange period that in a lot of people in newsrooms concerned. But the good news is that across todays pre acostas press pa is back. And lets talk about it more with a professor of government at the university of essex in england live via skype. Thanks for your time. Lets start by talking about jim acosta now back in the white house, but now there is a new promise of new rules to govern how reporters engage with officials when asking the questions. Does the white house have the discretion to arbitrarily to gfrn the press and if deemed unfair, can the press challenge those rules. That is a really good question. But this is one of the critical components of any democracy is that there is free press. And that means that they dont have obstacles standing in their way and rules that dictate how they are supposed to behave, that they should be free to be able to ask questions, ask followup questions. I mean that is what they were attacking jim acosta on that he was being too aggressive. But this is what journalists are supposed to do, to keep the executive branch in check. And so for a functioning democracy, you have to be able to have complete press freedom. This is something that dictatorships do. Often they put journalists in prison so it is a little bit harsher, but they also employ these type of tactics ever creating little rules around what they can say and do. The president has described it as no big deal, that he is fine with what happened. But he did have into say about how he would react after these new rules are established. Lets listen to it and well talk about it in a moment. Nobody believes in the First Amendment more than i do. And if i think somebody is acting out of sorts, i will leave, ill say thank you very much everybody, appreciate you coming and ill leave. And those reporters will not be too friendly to whoever it is that is acting up. So with regards to the First Amendment, the president say