Some senators said Tuesday they believe Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is guilty of the murder of dissident Jamal Khashoggi after they received a private briefing from CIA Director Gina Haspel in the Capitol Tuesday.
“I think if he was in front of a jury that he would have a unanimous verdict in about 30 minutes,” said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn. “A guilty verdict.”
Haspel briefed a small group of lawmakers from both parties at the request of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Several senators wanted to hear from Haspel after she was excluded from a briefing on Saudi Arabia last week that conducted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
Haspel’s CIA conducted an investigation that found the crown prince, known by the nickname MBS, knew about the killing at the very least and may have ordered it. Khashoggi was murdered in October in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and was reportedly dismembered.
“MBS the crown prince is a wrecking ball,” Graham said after the briefing. “I think he is complicit in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi.”
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said “all evidence” points to the crown princes ordering the killing of Khashoggi.
This briefing today basically confirmed a lot of our thoughts about the reprehensible killing,” Shelby said. “This is conduct that none of us in America would approve of in any way,” Shelby said. “Somebody should be punished now the question is how to you separate the Saudi crown prince and his group from the nation itself.”
Lawmakers this week were scheduled to being debating a resolution that would revoke U.S. support of Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen, where they are at war with Iran-backed Houthis. The debate was delayed due to the death of former President George H.W. Bush, but the outcome is likely to remain unchanged — it’s not expected to pass.
As an alternative, Republicans want to come up with an amendment that rebukes or punishes the crown prince without withdrawing U.S. support in Yemen.
Corker said he is devising a measure that would “appeal to a larger group that addresses this issue without undermining our national interests,” but he wouldn’t provide the details of the amendment.
Graham said he working on a bipartisan statement to issue by the end of the year “that in fact the crown prince was complicit in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi, that during his tenure as the crown prince he has put the region in chaos and has undercut the relationship.”
Graham said he won’t support arm sales to Saudi Arabia “as long as he is in charge of this country.”
He called the murder of Khashoggi “beyond my sharing it with you,” and “one of the most brutal acts one could imagine and it says a lot about him as a person.”
