A group of Democratic senators on Tuesday introduced a bill that would require the leader of the intelligence community to submit an unclassified report on the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The report must include “identification of those who carried out, participated in, ordered, or were otherwise complicit in or responsible for the death of Jamal Khashoggi,” according to the bill.
The bill, introduced by Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Kamala Harris of California, would require the director of national intelligence, currently Dan Coats, to submit the report no later than 30 days after its enactment.
Khashoggi, who worked for The Washington Post, was murdered in October 2018 in the Saudi embassy in Turkey.
The CIA has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally ordered Khashoggi’s murder, but President Donald Trump has steered clear of blaming the Saudi leader and signaled he will not take strong action against Saudi Arabia, a key US ally, or its crown prince.
In a statement, Wyden said the proposed bill means that “the Trump Administration can’t get away with burying the facts about Jamal Khashoggi.”
“The Saudi government brazenly murdered a Washington Post journalist, and this administration refuses to even tell the American people who is responsible for giving the order,” he said.
Harris, a 2020 presidential hopeful, noted in her statement that Khashoggi’s murder “represented an attack on journalists everywhere” and said that she signed on to the bill because “we must always defend the rights of a free and independent press both at home and abroad.”
CNN’s Karen Smith and Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.