Jamal Kashoggi's widow and Dems demand release of Trump and Saudi Crown Prince's call transcript

WASHINGTON, DC: Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, the widow of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has urged to release of the transcript of a 2019 phone call between President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

She was joined by Democratic lawmakers who are questioning what Trump has gained from his close relationship with the prince.

Hanan Khashoggi's news conference

Hanan appeared on Capitol Hill on Friday, November 21, moments after Trump dismissed the US intelligence findings that MBS was responsible for her husband’s killing in October 2018. 

“There is no justification to kidnap him, torture him, to kill him, and to cut him to pieces,” Hanan said during an emotional news conference. “This is a terrorist act.”

Democrats claim Trump benefited from Saudi Prince's call

Rep Eugene Vindman, a freshman Democrat from Virginia who was deputy legal adviser to the National Security Council during Trump’s first term, leads the push in Congress for the Trump administration to release the call transcripts.

Vindman, who has reviewed the transcript of the phone call, didn't go into specifics of the classified document, but said it used “the terminology of quid pro quo, the ensuing benefits that the president reaped.”

He called the transcript “shocking.” "The Kashoggi family and the American people deserve to know what was said on that call," he added.

The Democratic lawmakers have alleged that Trump’s family has extensive business dealings in Saudi Arabia that at times have benefited from the prince's direct involvement.

“We are being drawn in the direction of authoritarian monarchy, in tyranny right now,” said Rep Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat.  

During Prince Mohammed's state visit this week, Hanan has tried to serve as a reminder of her late husband's brutal killing. Originally from Egypt, Khashoggi received political asylum in the US in 2023 and currently lives in Virginia. She cast the demand for the transcript as a continuation of his work standing up for human rights and criticizing Saudi rulers.

“I need to know what is the truth in this conversation,” she said.

White House rejects demand to release Trump-MBS transcript

When asked if the White House would release the transcript, White House communications director Steven Cheung, in a statement, called Vindman "a bitter back-bencher who nobody takes seriously. He is a serial liar and was part of the hoax relating to the perfect Ukraine call, in which the Ukrainian president said so himself.”

It is unlikely that the Trump administration would voluntarily release the call transcript, and Democratic lawmakers, who are now in the minority, also have limited power to force its release.

They also stayed away from speculating whether Trump's relationship with Prince Mohammed would be grounds for another impeachment inquiry if they retake the House next year. 

Recently, Trump even granted the crown prince some of Washington's highest honors for a foreign dignitary, deepening the business and military relationship between the two nations.