Congressman Eugene Vindman of Virginia’s 7th District is leading a bipartisan effort demanding President Donald Trump release the full transcript of a 2019 phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that took place after the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In a letter signed by 37 House colleagues and sent to the White House on Wednesday, the lawmakers argue that transparency in foreign policy requires Americans to know what was discussed between the two leaders.

The letter comes after Vindman, a former National Security Council deputy legal advisor, reviewed the classified call during his White House tenure and described it as “shocking.” Speaking on the House floor Tuesday, Vindman stated that of all the presidential calls he reviewed during Trump’s first administration, two stood out as most problematic: the well-known call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that led to Trump’s first impeachment, and the lesser-known conversation with the Saudi crown prince.

Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S.-based journalist and Virginia resident who wrote critically of the Saudi royal family for The Washington Post, was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018. A 15-member Saudi team strangled, killed, and dismembered the journalist in what Turkish authorities captured in audio recordings through secret surveillance devices.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency concluded in November 2018 that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally ordered Khashoggi’s assassination. A 2021 U.S. intelligence report confirmed this assessment, stating that the crown prince “approved an operation” to kill or capture the journalist. The report noted that a specialized team of operatives who reported directly to the prince executed the killing, and the atmosphere he created made it improbable for aides to act without his approval.

The letter references President Trump’s recent statements defending the Saudi crown prince during a White House press briefing on Tuesday, when Trump characterized Khashoggi as “extremely controversial” and someone that “a lot of people didn’t like.” Trump claimed the crown prince “knew nothing” about the murder and dismissed questions about it, saying “things happen.”

This marked the latest in a years-long pattern of Trump publicly rejecting the CIA’s conclusions about the crown prince’s involvement in favor of Saudi denials.

In their letter, Vindman and his colleagues wrote: “The U.S. Intelligence Community concluded that the Saudi Crown Prince personally ordered Khashoggi’s murder. In a direct rebuke of our dedicated national security civil servants, your recent statements suggest that you place greater trust in the Crown Prince’s claims than in the assessments of our intelligence agencies.”​

The lawmakers continued: “Moreover, our strategic interests in the Middle East do not require the whitewashing of human rights abuses nor the abandonment of core American values. The American people deserve transparency in our foreign policy.”​

The letter requests answers “regarding your communications with the Crown Prince, as well as any promises, favor or commitments exchanged during the conversation.”

As of Thursday, the White House has not publicly responded to the congressional request for the transcript’s release. The call remains classified, with Vindman being one of the few officials outside the administration who reviewed its contents during his NSC tenure.