In the News

Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) joined Representatives Mark Pocan (D-WI), Ro Khanna (D-CA), and a bipartisan group of 55 Members of Congress in requesting Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats to release information regarding the U.S. intelligence community’s potential knowledge of Saudi Arabia’s plot to capture journalist and American resident Jamal Khashoggi. The letter comes as the Trump Administration continues to downplay the involvement of the Saudi regime’s role in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi. Mr. Khashoggi was a resident of the 11th District of Virginia, which Congressman Connolly represents.

“We seek urgent answers as to whether Mr. Khashoggi was in fact contacted about the credible threat to his life and liberty posed by the Saudi pilot to capture him; the precise date on which any arm of the U.S. Intelligence community first became aware of the Saudi plan to detain Mr. Khashoggi; and whether the intelligence community will declassify portions of U.S. intercepts of Saudi officials relevant to Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance,” the Members wrote.

The members noted that Intelligence Community Directive 191, issued in 2015, specifies the duty of the U.S. intelligence community to warn both U.S. and non-U.S. persons of threats of serious bodily injury, kidnapping, and intentional killing.

“In weighing the merits of U.S.-Saudi military cooperation, it is imperative that Members of Congress have a full, detailed grasp of the intelligence community’s knowledge of Saudi actions and their potentially harmful impact on the wellbeing of U.S. residents and citizens, as well as any U.S. intelligence failures pertaining to Saudi activities that may have contributed to needless loss of life,” the Members concluded.

The full letter is available here.

In addition to this letter, Congressman Connolly led a bipartisan, bicameral letter urging President Trump to raise the issue of Khashoggi’s disappearance with the highest levels of the Saudi and Turkish governments and to offer U.S. support to any independent investigation into his murder. Connolly also published an Op-Ed in The Hill calling for such an investigation, and he has been in regular contact with both the FBI and Mr. Khashoggi’s friends and associates in the weeks following Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance.