Lawmakers want DNI to release intelligence on Saudi crown prince’s role in murder of Jamal Khashoggi
Senior lawmakers want the intelligence community to make public what its officials have been willing to say only in classified settings: that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was responsible for the death of Washington Post contributing columnist and regime critic Jamal Khashoggi.
The Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Democratic vice chairman sent a letter Monday to the acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell, urging him to reconsider his agency’s decision not to declassify information related to the brutal October 2018 murder of Khashoggi, a U.S. resident at the time of his death in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
The previously undisclosed letter was sent by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.). At the same time, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is moving to invoke a rarely used legislative procedure that would enable the Senate to release the requested material if it is deemed in the public interest. [Continue reading…]