President Trump announced Sunday that he will review classified documents concerning Saudi Arabia's alleged involvement in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. The statement came in response to public pleas from families of the victims of the attacks.
"I'm going to look at it when I get back," Trump told reporters as he departed from Shannon Airport in Ireland. "I know they asked me Friday. I'll be looking at it."
Groups such as 9/11 Families United, led by Terry Strada, have pursued legal action against the Kingdom, asserting that Riyadh should be held responsible for the attacks that resulted in the deaths of 2,977 people.
On Friday, Strada addressed the Kingdom during a remembrance ceremony at Ground Zero, questioning the lack of justice regarding Saudi Arabia's role in the deaths of victims. She also stated that successive administrations have chosen to protect Saudi Arabia rather than stand with the families of those lost.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers involved in the 9/11 attacks were Saudi nationals. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was also born in Saudi Arabia, though his citizenship was revoked by the Kingdom in 1994. The Saudi government has consistently denied any involvement in the attacks.
A federal appeals panel in Manhattan is scheduled to hear arguments next month concerning Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national identified as having assisted a pair of the Flight 77 hijackers in securing lodging in California. A 2017 FBI memo indicated al-Bayoumi was on the payroll of Saudi intelligence, and a 1999 video, unsealed in 2024, showed him filming the U.S. Capitol and discussing a "plan."
Victims' families' lawyers contend that al-Bayoumi was surveying the building, with a significant portion of the video focusing on the Capitol's entrances, security, and interior columns. The 2004 9/11 Commission report suggested a high probability that the Capitol was the intended target of United Flight 93 before it crashed in Pennsylvania. Additionally, a video from February 2000 reportedly shows al-Bayoumi hosting a welcome gathering for the future hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar shortly after their relocation to San Diego.