The White House is facing calls to release a “shocking and disturbing” phone call between Donald Trump and the Saudi Crown Prince about the gruesome murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Via The Daily Beast:
One day after the president insisted Mohammed bin Salman had nothing to do with Khashoggi’s killing, despite U.S. intelligence officials concluding he ordered the hit, a former Trump national security insider has claimed there is explosive evidence to the contrary.
Virginia Congressman Eugene Vindman was a National Security Council staffer under the first Trump administration. His work included reviewing certain calls between the president and foreign leaders.
He claims that one phone call he reviewed undercut Trump’s astonishing defense of the Crown Prince in the Oval Office on Tuesday, when he said of Khashoggi’s murder by Saudi agents: “Things happen.”
“During my tenure on Trump’s White House National Security Council staff, I reviewed many of Trump’s calls with foreign leaders. Of all the calls I reviewed, two stood out as the most problematic,” said Vindman, a retired Army officer-turned-Democratic Congressman. “The first, we all know, was between President Trump and President Zelensky, which resulted in President Trump’s first impeachment. The second was between President Trump and Mohammed bin Salman.
