Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told senators to “ask the White House” why CIA Director Gina Haspel was absent from their briefing on the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, according to Sen. Dick Durbin.
“We were told during this briefing that it was the direction of the White House that she not attend,” the Illinois Democrat said, according to The Hill. “I cannot recall a briefing on such a sensitive nature where we have been denied access to the intelligence agencies of the United States.”
“I want to be precise,” Durbin said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday. “I believe what [Pompeo] said is ‘ask the White House’ when we asked why isn’t the CIA director there?”
Both Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said the decision not to send Haspel came from the White House.
"The administration's position was defended by both of them in terms of what we had done naming 17 people who would suffer because we believed they were involved. But there was no satisfying answer about how it is possible that this could have occurred without the crown prince's knowledge or direction," Durbin told CNN on Thursday.
A CIA official denied that the White House prevented Haspel from attending the briefing.
“While Director Haspel did not attend today’s Yemen policy briefing, the agency has already briefed the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and congressional leadership on the totality of the compartmented, classified intelligence and will continue to provide updates on this important matter to policymakers and Congress," CIA Press Secretary Timothy Barrett said. "The notion that anyone told Director Haspel not to attend today's briefing is false.”
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