Trump Says He Will Consider Releasing More 9/11 Files on Possible Saudi Connections
President Donald Trump says he will consider releasing additional government records concerning possible Saudi connections to the September 11 terrorist attacks after victims’ families publicly called for greater transparency.
Trump addressed the request Sunday while preparing to leave Ireland and return to Washington. Asked whether he would release additional records, the president said he was aware of the families’ request and would examine the issue after returning to the United States.
The renewed push came during Friday’s 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero, where Terry Strada, whose husband Tom was killed in the World Trade Center, publicly called on the administration to release additional information. Strada serves as national chair of 9/11 Families United and has spent years seeking accountability over allegations involving Saudi Arabia.
Another relative of a 9/11 victim also appealed directly to Trump during the ceremony, asking for unredacted records concerning alleged Saudi connections to be made public while surviving relatives are still alive to review them. Vice President JD Vance was among the officials attending the ceremony.
Fifteen of the 19 al Qaeda hijackers responsible for the attacks were Saudi nationals. Victims’ families have spent years pursuing litigation against Saudi Arabia and alleging that individuals with Saudi government connections provided assistance to some of the hijackers before the attacks. Saudi Arabia has consistently denied that its government participated in or supported the plot.
Previously declassified FBI records have fueled continued scrutiny of people who interacted with hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar after they arrived in California. Among the individuals examined by investigators was Saudi national Omar al-Bayoumi, who helped the two men obtain housing and settle in the San Diego area.
The 9/11 Commission ultimately said it found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded al Qaeda. Questions about contacts between lower-level Saudi-linked individuals and the hijackers, however, have continued to drive litigation and demands for additional records.
The latest request comes shortly after the administration released another collection of previously classified 9/11 material. On the anniversary, the CIA made public dozens of presidential intelligence briefs dating from 1998 through September 2001 that documented the government’s evolving understanding of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda’s plans to attack the United States.
Families pursuing the Saudi issue have said those releases still leave important material undisclosed, including records they believe could provide additional information about people who interacted with the hijackers before the attacks. Lawmakers from both parties have also supported releasing additional records.
Trump has not yet committed to declassifying the requested documents, saying only that he intends to examine the matter. His comments nevertheless reopen a decades-long debate over how much information concerning possible Saudi connections to the 9/11 hijackers remains classified and whether additional government records should now be released publicly.