Top Senate Democrats Demand Trump Declassify Decision to Kill Soleimani That Brought US to the 'Brink of War With Iran'

Two leading Democrats in the Republican-controlled Senate implored President Donald Trump on Monday to immediately declassify the formal notification submitted to Congress detailing the White House decision to kill Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani in an airstrike last week.

“Don’t hide from the American people. Declassify your decision to kill Soleimani and bring our country to the brink of war with Iran.”
—Sen. Bob Menendez

“It is critical that national security matters of such import be shared with the American people in a timely manner,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in a brief letter (pdf) to Trump.

Referencing the legally mandated war powers notification that the president provided to Congress on Saturday, the senators added that “an entirely classified notification is simply not appropriate in a democratic society, and there appears to be no legitimate justification for classifying this notification.”

Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) elite Quds Force, was killed in a U.S. airstrike ordered by Trump at Baghdad International Airport on Thursday. The assassination of Soleimani, which led Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to promise “harsh retaliation,” has rapidly ramped up fears of the U.S. waging war on Iran.

Menendez, who shared the full letter in a tweet Monday, said that “we are sending a short but clear letter to Pres. Trump: Don’t hide from the American people. Declassify your decision to kill Soleimani and bring our country to the brink of war with Iran.”

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Jamal Abdi, head of National Iranian American Council and its sister organization NIAC Action, responded to the letter on Twitter by pointing out that both Menendez and Schumer opposed the Iran nuclear deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), finalized under former President Barack Obama in 2015. Trump ditched the international agreement in May 2018.