President Trump didn’t want CIA director Gina Haspel to brief U.S. Senators on the agency’s assessment of the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi.
“We were told during this briefing that it was the direction of the White House that she not attend,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told reporters after the briefing. “I cannot recall a briefing on such a sensitive nature where we have been denied access to the intelligence agencies of the United States.”
Trump, in other words, is preventing the CIA from doing its job. Some people, concerned about drone war and torture, will say that’s a good thing.
But Haspel was not going to talk about or defend those policies. The senators wanted to hear about the audio tape of Khashoggi’s last moments that everybody else in the Trump administration declines to listen to.
Haspel has information about the assassination of a U.S. resident. It is in the public interest to know more.
Senator Lindsey Graham has said he will block the Senate vote on government spending bill until the White House makes Haspel available.
Source: Durbin: Pompeo, Mattis said White House prevented Haspel from briefing on Saudi Arabia | The Hill
