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White House prepares to brief lawmakers on Iranian leader’s killing

The Trump administration is under pressure from Democratic lawmakers to declassify its written notification to Congress.

By MERIDITH MCGRAW

The White House is working to schedule a briefing this Wednesday for members of Congress and the socalled Gang of Eight congressional leaders on the killing of Iran’s top military commander, Qassem Soleimani, a senior administration official said.

Members of Congress were largely kept in the dark on President Donald Trump’s decision to kill Soleimani with a drone strike on his convoy at Baghdad’s International Airport on Friday. On Saturday, the White House notified Congress of his decision as required by the 1973 War Powers Act, although its classified contents were immediately questioned by Democratic leaders.

On Monday morning, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Bob Menendez and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called for the Trump administration to immediately declassify the notification, and echoed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s concerns about its contents being kept from the public.

“It is critical that national security matters of such import be shared with the American people in a timely manner,” Schumer and Menendez wrote. “An entirely classified notification is simply not appropriate in a democratic society, and there appears to be no legitimate justification for classifying this notification."

In a statement, Pelosi said the document sent from the White House “prompts serious and urgent questions about the timing, manner and justification of the Administration’s decision to engage in hostilities against Iran.”

“The highly unusual decision to classify this document in its entirety compounds our many concerns, and suggests that the Congress and the American people are being left in the dark about our national security,” Pelosi said.

The White House has not yet made any decisions on declassifying any of the notification.

Speaking on Fox News this morning from the White House, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway slammed the declassification request from Schumer and Menendez as “partisan action.”

“They know that beginning this week there will be congressional briefings, and they're not restricted, I'm informed, to people who are just in the intelligence committee. Members of Congress can have access to the information,” Conway said. “They know that the Pentagon will be briefing Congress privately in the due course so that's just a partisan move as was their impeachment.”