Families allege Saudi officials aided hijackers; kingdom denies involvement
President Donald Trump said Sunday he would look into requests from families of September 11 victims to release declassified records that could illuminate Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in the 2001 attacks, speaking to reporters in Ireland before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington.
“I’m going to look at it when I get back,” Trump said, according to The Guardian. “I know they asked me Friday.” The president did not specify which records or which agencies might be involved in any declassification.
The request was delivered Friday at the 25th anniversary memorial in New York City by Terry Strada, national chair of 9/11 Families United. Strada, whose husband Tom was killed in the attacks, was among the family members who read aloud the names of victims during the remembrance ceremony.
Strada called on Trump to “tell the Saudis to stop lying” and said successive US presidents have chosen “to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families.” She added that the current administration should “stand with the families, stand with the survivors.”
“It has been one betrayal after another,” Strada said. “President Trump can still change that.”
The families’ long-running allegation centers on the claim that a group of extremist religious leaders in Saudi Arabia gained influence in the kingdom’s government and aided the hijackers. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on September 11, 2001, were Saudi nationals, but the Saudi government has consistently denied any involvement in the attacks.
Relatives of 9/11 victims are engaged in a lengthy legal battle against Saudi Arabia, and Strada’s remarks at the Friday memorial underscored the pressure families have brought on the administration to act on that litigation through declassification.
Trump’s Sunday remarks were his first public response to the families’ request, and he did not commit to any timeline for a decision. The president was returning from a weekend trip to Ireland.