WASHINGTON – Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) today released the following statement calling on the Trump Administration to support the 9/11 survivors and family members in their pursuit of justice:
“We stand with the 9/11 families as the Trump Administration obfuscates the truth. We are committed to justice and closure in this deeply traumatizing chapter of American history while the Trump Administration seems determined to conceal the truth about Saudi Arabia’s involvement in 9/11 from these families and the American public. Last September 11, President Trump looked the 9/11 families in the eye and said he would help them. Instead, he has stood in their way. When we make a commitment to the 9/11 families and the American people, we must keep it.”
In 2016, Congress approved the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which allows victims of terrorism and their families to pursue civil lawsuits against foreign states that aid and abet terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Several 9/11 victims and their families are currently seeking to demonstrate in federal court that agents of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia provided unlawful material support to al Qaeda, including the 9/11 hijackers. The plaintiffs have requested critical information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), but so far the FBI has refused to cooperate.
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