{"id":12618,"date":"2018-10-10T22:37:50","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T22:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/10\/10\/us-senators-order-magnitsky-probe-as-riyadhs-capitol-hill-clout-plummets\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:29:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:29:54","slug":"us-senators-order-magnitsky-probe-as-riyadhs-capitol-hill-clout-plummets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/10\/10\/us-senators-order-magnitsky-probe-as-riyadhs-capitol-hill-clout-plummets\/","title":{"rendered":"US senators order Magnitsky probe as Riyadh\u2019s Capitol Hill clout plummets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and 18 other senators have sent a letter<\/a> to President Donald Trump that could pave the way for sanctions in the disappearance of a dissident Saudi journalist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Committee chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and ranking member Bob Menendez, D-N.J., are leading a call to probe whether Saudi Arabia<\/a> was responsible for \u201can extrajudicial killing, torture, or other gross violation of internationally recognized human rights against an individual exercising freedom of expression” under the Global Magnitsky Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawmakers ask the Trump administration to report back in 120 days. \u201cOur expectation is that in making your determination you will consider any relevant information, including with respect to the highest ranking officials in the Government of Saudi Arabia,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any resulting sanctions would freeze any assets the individuals or entities hold in the U.S. and also prevent them from using any American financial institution for banking or other purposes. Since the United States financial system has such broad global reach, the sanctions make it difficult for the individuals to use major banks anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move is a sign Saudi Arabia\u2019s credibility with the U.S. Congress has hit a new low in the wake of reports Riyadh is suspected in the death of Jamal Khashoggi, a contributor to the Washington Post. While the lawmakers do not explicitly reference arms sales, the move also calls into question future U.S. sales to the kingdom, which seem at least for now to be frozen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khashoggi, who has been critical of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, fled the country last year. He vanished a week ago, after visiting the Saudi consulate in Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A senior Turkish official told The New York Times<\/a> that Khashoggi was murdered and gruesomely dismembered with a bone saw in a Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on the Saudi government\u2019s orders. Saudi Arabia, however, insists that Khashoggi left the consulate shortly after he arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump and European leaders all have called on Riyadh to explain what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The controversy threatens to roil a U.S.-Saudi relationship that was already rocky, as far as Capitol Hill was concerned, and casts a cloud over a key market for the U.S. defense trade. Lawmakers have expressed growing concerns with the civilian death toll from Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, Trump touted $110 billion in defense deals with Saudi Arabia, including seven THAAD missile defense batteries, more than 100,000 air-to-ground munitions and billions of dollars’ worth of new aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\t