"I can confirm they sat next to one another and they discussed the ongoing tragic situation with Khashoggi," Sanders told the Daily Mail newspaper.
According to the newspaper, just a few hours before leaving for Paris, Erdogan acknowledged the existence of a rumored audio tape allegedly documenting Khashoggi's tortures and death in the Saudi consulate in the Turkish capital of Istanbul. He also said that Turkey had shared the tape with a number of countries, including the United States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
READ MORE: Snowden Claims Israeli Software Was Used to Track Khashoggi
The media outlet reported that the White House had not commented on the audio tape yet.
On Saturday evening, leaders and heads of governments from around the world, as well as heads of international organizations, gathered for a dinner in the Orsay Museum in Paris ahead of the end of World War I centenary commemorations that are held in the French capital on Sunday.
On October 26, the Saudi prosecutor general acknowledged that the journalist's murder had been premeditated, while Istanbul prosecutors said on October 31 that Khashoggi's body had been dismembered and destroyed after the murder.
Riyadh maintains that the murder had nothing to do with the Saudi Royal family, describing it as a rogue operation.
