Senate

Schumer: Haspel should brief full Senate on Khashoggi killing

by Jordain Carney 12/04/18 03:30 PM ET

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday that CIA Director Gina Haspel should meet with the full Senate after holding a closed-door briefing with roughly 10 senators earlier that day.

“While I will not discuss the content of the Haspel briefing, it reinforced the need for a strong response to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi,” Schumer said in a statement. “CIA Director Haspel should brief the full Senate without delay.”

{mosads}Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, also called for Haspel to meet with the entire chamber to brief lawmakers on the death of Khashoggi, who was a U.S. resident and Washington Post contributor.

“Every Senator should hear what I heard this afternoon,” Durbin said in a statement. “CIA Director Haspel must brief the full Senate immediately.”

Both Schumer and Durbin attended Tuesday’s closed-door briefing with Haspel, who made the trip to Capitol Hill about a week after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis briefed the full Senate.

Her absence at that meeting enraged some senators, who warned it was a strategic misstep to not have her in the room after she traveled to Turkey to lead the investigation into Khashoggi’s slaying.

Haspel’s briefing came after the Senate advanced a resolution that would end U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen by a 63-37 vote. The chamber is expected to vote next week on whether to begin debate on the measure.

Limiting Tuesday’s briefing to certain Senate committee leaders rankled members who are deeply involved in the Saudi fight but not invited to attend.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) called the meeting an example of the “deep state,” questioning why every senator wasn’t allowed to participate.

“The deep state wants to keep everyone in the dark. This is just ridiculous!,” Paul said in a tweet ahead of the briefing.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) noted that he and the other two sponsors of the Senate resolution — Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) — would not be at the briefing.

“It is outrageous that the White House is still hiding what they know about the Khashoggi murder from Congress,” Murphy said. “White House only letting leadership into this briefing.”

He lamented in a separate tweet that Washington has an “over-classification” program.

“For instance, if our government knows that Saudi leaders were involved in the murder of a U.S. resident, why shouldn’t the public know this?” Murphy asked.