“I never thought I’d see the day a White House would moonlight as a public relations firm for the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia,” Sen. Bob Corker said on Twitter. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images Congress Senators demand Trump say whether Saudi prince ordered Khashoggi killing

The bipartisan leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is demanding a definitive determination from President Donald Trump about whether Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

In a letter to Trump, the panel’s chairman, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), and ranking member, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), specifically asked on Tuesday whether the administration believed that bin Salman was involved in the murder of Khashoggi, who wrote for The Washington Post and was killed in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, last month. Trump gave no ruling on bin Salman’s involvement in a statement earlier Tuesday that largely sided with Saudi Arabia, declaring that “maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!”


But under the Magnitsky Act, Trump can be required to make a determination about human rights violations by global leaders. The law requires the president to do so within 120 days of the committee’s request, as well as apply any sanctions. Corker and Menendez made their first request on Oct. 10, without specifically asking about bin Salman.

“In light of recent developments, including the Saudi government’s acknowledgement that Saudi officials killed Mr. Khashoggi in its Istanbul consulate, we request that your determination specifically address whether Crown Prince Mohamed [sic] bin Salman is responsible for Mr. Khashoggi’s murder,” the senators said in the letter.

Corker, who is retiring, threw additional jabs at the Trump administration on Twitter. He said Congress would “consider all of the tools at our disposal” moving forward. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) plans to try to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

“I never thought I’d see the day a White House would moonlight as a public relations firm for the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia,” Corker said on Twitter.

Corker and Menendez’s first sanctions inquiry citing the Magnitsky Act ultimately resulted in the administration’s sanctioning 17 Saudi Arabian officials following Khashoggi’s death.

Elana Schor contributed to this report.