Senate Dems introduce bill demanding report on Khashoggi killing

Several Senate Democrats on Tuesday filed a bill to force the Trump administration to issue a public report on the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S.-based columnist who was killed after entering a Saudi consulate in Turkey last year.

A bill filed by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chris Coons (D-Conn.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) would require Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, to release a report on the journalist’s killing within 30 days of passing the measure.

{mosads}The Democrats are seeking answers as the Trump administration has issued mixed messages on Khashoggi’s killing, which the CIA reportedly determined occurred at the direction of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

President Trump has shied away from assigning blame to the crown prince for the killing, but he has called the killing a “crime” and suggested there was a “cover up,” but has said that the crown prince “hates it more than I do.”

“As I said, ‘Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t [order the killing],’ Trump said of the crown prince’s alleged involvement. “But I will say very strongly that it’s a very important ally. And if we go by a certain standard we won’t be able to have allies with almost any country.”

Wyden fired back at the president’s assertions in the press release Tuesday, saying that “the Trump administration can’t get away with burying the facts about Jamal Khashoggi.”

Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee added, “The brutal murder of U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the brazen cover up by the Saudi government cannot be tolerated. The American people deserve to know the truth about what happened.”

Harris, the only contender in the 2020 Democratic Primary to sign on to the bill, called Khashoggi’s murder an “attack on journalists everywhere.”

“The murder of Jamal Khashoggi was a tragedy and represented an attack on journalists everywhere,” she said. “Unfortunately, the White House has not provided clear answers about what happened or who in the Saudi government might bear responsibility for the attack. We must always defend the rights of a free and independent press both at home and abroad, which is why I’m standing with my colleagues to demand a public report on this incident.”