--- title: Exclusive: Congressman Plans New Push For Trump-MBS Transcript description: Rep. Eugene Vindman will appear with Jamal Khashoggi's widow on Friday to push for release of a "shocking" transcript between Trump and MBS canonical: https://time.com/7335544/trump-transcript-khashoggi-vindman-mbs/ author: Brian Bennett article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-11-20T19:28:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2025-11-21T20:47:23.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Exclusive: Congressman Plans New Push For Trump-MBS Transcript og:description: Rep. Eugene Vindman will appear with Jamal Khashoggi's widow to push for release of a "shocking" transcript between Trump and MBS og:url: https://time.com/7335544/trump-transcript-khashoggi-vindman-mbs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt201f41f7286c6873/6998cbdb25f3ee2b2f645341/GettyImages-2201233655.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Ukraine Caucus Presser in DC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Exclusive: Congressman Plans New Push For Trump-MBS Transcript twitter:description: Rep. Eugene Vindman will appear with Jamal Khashoggi's widow to push for release of a "shocking" transcript between Trump and MBS twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt201f41f7286c6873/6998cbdb25f3ee2b2f645341/GettyImages-2201233655.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Congressman Knows What Trump Told MBS After Khashoggi’s Killing. He Says the Public Needs to See the Transcript > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Trump Says Saudi Crown Prince “Knew Nothing” About Jamal Khashoggi’s Killing [Watch (HLS stream): Trump Says Saudi Crown Prince “Knew Nothing” About Jamal Khashoggi’s Killing](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XGSpI8Oj.m3u8) (0:52)  _Published 2025-11-18. Jamal Khashoggi's widow will join Rep. Eugene Vindman on Friday to push for release of the transcript_  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. Updated: Nov 21, 2025 8:47 PM UTCPublished: Nov 20, 2025 7:28 PM UTC  Congressman Eugene Vindman, a Virginia Democrat, speaks at a press conference with other members of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus in Washington, DC on Feb. 24, 2025. Congressman Eugene Vindman, a Virginia Democrat, speaks at a press conference with other members of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus in Washington, DC on Feb. 24, 2025. Nathan Posner—Anadolu via Getty Images  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. Updated: Nov 21, 2025 8:47 PM UTCPublished: Nov 20, 2025 7:28 PM UTC There’s another transcript in Washington waiting to come to light. Rep. Eugene Vindman, a Virginia Democrat, is alleging there was a “shocking” 2019 call between President Donald Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia following the brutal killing of [Jamal Khashoggi](https://time.com/5692863/jamal-khashoggi-murder-anniversary/) that the public needs to hear. Vindman knows about it because he was working at the time as a lawyer on the White House’s National Security Council, which produced a classified summary of the conversation. “For me, the call was shocking, and I think the American people deserve to hear the contents of that call,” Vindman tells TIME. Vindman first spoke publicly about the phone call on the House floor on Tuesday, but his comments were largely swamped in the news by the landslide House vote demanding Trump release the Jeffrey Epstein case files. In his speech, Vindman called on Trump to also release the transcript of his call with MBS, as the Crown Prince is known. “If history is any guide, the receipts will be shocking,” Vindman said. Those remarks were the opening salvo of a pressure campaign Vindman plans to unfold in the next weeks and months to demand Trump reveal to the public what he told MBS in private. That campaign includes Khashoggi’s widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, who joined Vindman for a press conference at the Capitol on Friday. Vindman tells TIME he has also spoken to the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, about writing a bill to require Trump release the transcript. On Thursday, 36 House Democrats joined Vindman in sending Trump a letter insisting he make public the full transcript of the call. Vindman’s unusual decision to speak about the sensitive work he was involved with on the National Security Council came about quickly this week. He says the President forced his hand. He was in his Capitol Hill office on Tuesday when he heard that Trump had [defended the crown prince](https://time.com/7334893/khashoggi-saudi-crown-prince-trump-mbs-cia/) during their Oval Office meeting, in response to a question about Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist. Trump said on Tuesday the Saudi leader “knew nothing” about Khashoggi’s 2018 death and “things happen." But a CIA assessment released in 2021 found that Saudi agents in Istanbul had been acting on bin Salman’s order in 2018 when they killed and dismembered Khashoggi, who had written critically of the Saudi royal family. Trump described Khashoggi as "extremely controversial" Trump’s defense of the Crown Prince outraged Vindman, whose work on the national security council staff during Trump’s first term involved monitoring the contents of sensitive phone calls between Trump and foreign leaders. “We can’t whitewash what he did,” Vindman says. Vindman’s name may be familiar because of his better-known twin brother Alexander Vindman—who also worked on the NSC during Trump’s first term and who [blew the whistle](https://time.com/5712750/alexander-vindman-national-security-trump-ukraine/) on Trump’s infamous call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky that led to Trump’s first impeachment. Trump eventually released the summary transcript of that call which shows Trump suggesting the Ukrainian President investigate his then-political rival Joe Biden. Now the other Vindman finds himself in a similar situation, pushing for accountability over what the same President said in a private call with a foreign leader. Vindman declined to describe the exact contents of Trump’s call with MBS to TIME. The records of such calls are often classified. But, he stresses, the President has the power to release the records. White House communications director Steven Cheung dismissed Vindman’s call for the transcript. “Vindman is a bitter back-bencher who nobody takes seriously,” Cheung said in a statement to TIME. “He is a serial liar and was part of the hoax relating to the perfect Ukraine call.” In the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump drew international attention for both his aggressive defense of the Crown Prince and his disparagement of Khashoggi, who he called "extremely controversial." “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or don’t like him, things happen, but he knew nothing about it,” Trump said while sitting next to MBS. “We can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that." The comments dovetailed with ones Trump made in 2019, in an interview for Bob Woodward’s book _Rage_, in which Trump said he “saved” the Crown Prince’s “ass” after news of Khashoggi broke and that Trump was “able to get Congress to leave him alone.” Hanan Elatr Khashoggi told TIME in an interview Friday that she “choked” when she heard Trump describe her husband as “extremely controversial." "I would like to tell him, Mr. President—he doesn’t know Mr. Jamal Khashoggi—he is describing someone else," she said. "And even if he was not liked by someone, that don’t give a license to someone to kill him." She says she hopes to have a chance to meet Trump in person one day "and introduce the real Jamal, how he was transparent, professional and was a brave man." Vindman described the President saying “things happen” about the killing as “outrageous.” “A brutal murder like this does not just happen—of a U.S. resident,” he says. Vindman’s efforts to shed light on the 2019 call follows the [successful effort](https://time.com/7334902/epstein-files-released-house-vote/) by some lawmakers to force Congress to pass a bill requiring the Justice Department to release much of what it has on Epstein. Trump [signed](https://time.com/7335230/trump-signs-epstein-files-bill/) that measure into law on Wednesday. Vindman suggests the timing could be right for another bipartisan effort toward transparency. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who tried and failed to line up Republican opposition to the Epstein vote, looks like he’s “starting to lose a little bit of control of the floor,” Vindman says. ## Transcript As far as this gentleman is concerned, he's done a phenomenal job. You're mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about, whether you like him or didn't like him. Things happen, but he knew nothing about it. And we can leave it at that. You don't have to embarrass our guests by asking a question like that. About the journalist. It's really painful to hear. You know, anyone that been losing his life for, uh, you know, no real purpose or not in a legal way. And it's been painful for us in Saudi Arabia. We did all the right steps of, uh, investigation, etc., in Saudi Arabia. And we've improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that. And it's painful and it's a huge mistake. And we are doing our best that this doesn't happen again. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7335544/trump-transcript-khashoggi-vindman-mbs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7335544/trump-transcript-khashoggi-vindman-mbs/"},"headline":"This Congressman Knows What Trump Told MBS After Khashoggi’s Killing. 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