Top Senate Democrat says State Dept. is working on new Saudi arms deal

• Menendez and House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) announced an investigation into Linick last week.

The big picture: The Senate voted to block the Trump administration's sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia in June 2019, in a bipartisan rebuke of the administration's close relationship to the kingdom and the use of weapons against civilians in Yemen.

What's new: Menendez claims he received draft documentation from the State Department on the sale prior to the Senate recess in April due to the coronavirus pandemic.

What they're saying: "The administration has refused to answer our fundamental questions to justify this new sale and articulate how it would be consistent with US values and national security objectives," Menendez wrote.

• "As a matter of policy, we do not comment upon or confirm proposed defense sales until they have been formally notified to Congress," a State Department spokesperson told Axios.

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