Twenty-five years is long enough: It is time for Trump to declassify the Saudi 9/11 files – opinion

Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, questions persist regarding potential Saudi government involvement. While the 9/11 Commission initially found no institutional Saudi funding for al-Qaeda, subsequent declassifications, including the 2016 release of 28 pages and President Biden's 2021 order, have revealed contacts between hijackers and individuals linked to Saudi officials.

• FBI investigations, notably Operation Encore, focused on figures like Omar al-Bayoumi, Fahad al-Thumairy, and Musaed al-Jarrah, examining their alleged assistance to hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar.
• US District Judge George B. Daniels, in August 2025, rejected Saudi Arabia's attempt to dismiss a lawsuit by victims' families, finding "reasonable evidence" of al-Bayoumi's, al-Thumairy's, and the Kingdom's roles. He stated it was "more likely than not" that al-Bayoumi's encounters with hijackers were not chance meetings.
• Evidence from British authorities includes a 1999 video by al-Bayoumi of the US Capitol and a drawing with airplane calculations, which the judge found "facially connects Bayoumi with knowledge of the 9/11 attacks."
• Victims' families and members of Congress are now urging President Trump to declassify additional government records concerning al-Bayoumi and the hijackers, advocating for full transparency.