WASHINGTON (AP) — CIA Director Gina Haspel is briefing House leaders Wednesday on the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi as the Senate prepares for a possible vote on two resolutions that would rebuke Saudi Arabia for its role in the slaying.
Two people familiar with the meeting say House leaders are receiving a briefing from Haspel Wednesday morning, a day before Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis are to brief the full House on the killing. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the classified briefing.
Pompeo and Mattis briefed the Senate last month and told senators there was "no direct reporting" and "no smoking gun" to connect Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman to Khashoggi's death. But a smaller group of senators leaving a separate briefing with Haspel days later said there was "zero chance" the crown prince wasn't involved.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the Senate could vote as soon as Wednesday on a resolution calling on the U.S. to pull assistance from the Saudi-led war in Yemen, a measure that gained momentum after Khashoggi's death. While a handful of Republicans support the resolution, McConnell and most other Republicans oppose it, saying it could upset the longtime partnership with the U.S. ally and threaten national security.
McConnell said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., will also introduce a resolution condemning the journalist's killing. McConnell urged his fellow senators to vote for Corker's measure, which he said "does a good job capturing bipartisan concerns about both the war in Yemen and the behavior of our Saudi partners more broadly." Corker has not yet released the full text of that resolution.
It is so far unclear if the House would be willing to consider either measure.
Senators in both parties have been enraged over Khashoggi's killing in October and over Trump's equivocating on who is to blame. Pressed on a response to Saudi Arabia, the president has said the United States "intends to remain a steadfast partner" of the country, touted Saudi arms deals worth billions of dollars to the U.S. and thanked the country for plunging oil prices.
The journalist, who had lived in the U.S. and wrote for The Washington Post, had been critical of the Saudi regime. He was killed in what U.S. officials have described as an elaborate plot as he visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for marriage paperwork.
U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that the crown prince must have at least known of the plot, but Trump has been reluctant to pin the blame.
"It could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event," Trump said in a lengthy statement Nov. 20. "Maybe he did and maybe he didn't!"
Disclaimer: This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Associated Press (AP) wire.
