(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the Trump administration is revoking the visas of some Saudi officials implicated in the death of writer Jamal Khashoggi.
Pompeo announced the step at a State Department news conference Tuesday. Vice President Mike Pence said earlier that Khashoggi’s death at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, “will not go without an American response.”
The visa revocations are the first punitive measures taken by the administration against the Saudis since Khashoggi disappeared after entering the consulate on Oct. 2.
Visa records are considered confidential and Pompeo did not say which or how many Saudi officials would have their visas revoked. Saudi authorities have detained 18 people in connection with Khashoggi’s death, which officials say was accidental despite Turkish allegations that Khashoggi was intentionally killed.
