Vindman: Republicans Lack 'Bravery' to Demand Release of Trump–Mohammed bin Salman Call Transcript

Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-Va.) on Friday urged a bipartisan effort to pressure President Donald Trump to release a transcript of a 2019 phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a conversation Vindman says related to the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Speaking at a news conference outside the Capitol alongside Khashoggi’s widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Vindman said Congress could compel disclosure but that bipartisan support would be required — something he said he does not expect from many Republican colleagues.

“Congress can act. We would need bipartisan support … unfortunately, my Republican colleagues are lacking in a trait, bravery,” Vindman said, noting that the president could also choose to make the transcript public unilaterally, as he did with the 2019 Ukraine call.

Vindman added that the American public would be “shocked” if they heard the full exchange between Trump and the crown prince about Khashoggi, who was living in Virginia at the time of his death. Vindman said he has reviewed transcripts of the call but declined to disclose specific passages that alarmed him.

Background and reaction

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman likely approved the operation to capture or kill Khashoggi, who was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. The Saudi-born journalist had frequently criticized the crown prince and other members of the Saudi royal family in his Washington Post columns.

During a recent meeting with the Saudi leader, President Trump contradicted those intelligence findings, saying the crown prince “knew nothing” about what happened to Khashoggi. In a 2020 interview with Bob Woodward, Mr. Trump said of the crown prince, “I saved his ass,” and described having influenced Congress to back off criticism.

The White House dismissed Vindman’s demand for the Saudi call transcript. White House communications officials called Vindman a partisan critic and questioned his credibility.

Impeachment context and family connection

Vindman served on the National Security Council during Trump’s first term. His twin brother, Alexander Vindman, was present on Trump’s 2019 Ukraine call and, along with Eugene, reported concerns about the president’s conduct that helped precipitate the president’s first impeachment. The Senate later acquitted Mr. Trump.

Khashoggi’s widow: no justification for murder

At the press event, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi rejected recent characterizations of her late husband as divisive. “I heard this week something very disturbing from President Trump about my husband, that he’s controversial and unliked. I would like to tell Mr. Trump you are expressing someone else, not Jamal Khashoggi,” she said, calling him a stable man and a role model for Arab and Muslim communities.

She condemned attempts to smear her husband with allegations of extremist ties and called his abduction, torture and killing “a terrorist act,” saying there is no justification for what occurred.

Vindman reiterated that transparency is important when a conversation involves allegations of a brutal murder and reiterated his call for the transcript to be made public — either by the president or through bipartisan congressional action.