LEADERS OF CONGRESS CALL FOR RELEASE OF FBI DOCUMENTS ON SAUDI ROLE and THE RECENT DEPOSITION IN SWEDEN
Dear Clients,
As a result of your support and efforts, members of Congress this week signed a letter to Attorney General Garland asking him to declassify and disclose the balance of the material concerning Saudi officials and the 9/11 Attacks contained in the FBI’s Operation Encore files. That letter is attached below.
We also recently made important progress in the suit with the deposition testimony of Modhar Abdullah. Abdullah was arrested in San Diego shortly after the 9/11 Attacks for his suspected role in assisting hijackers Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar. Abdullah ultimately pled guilty to visa and immigration fraud and relocated to Sweden. Our investigators located him there and, after years of effort, we were able to compel his testimony, which we took over the course of the past week.
Prior to Abdullah’s deposition, Andrew Shen, a lawyer from the D.C.-based Kellogg Hansen law firm representing Saudi Arabia, met with Abdullah privately, sharing with him the very FBI material that you have been forbidden to see, working with the suspected terrorist to prepare him to testify.
After one of these private meetings with Kellogg Hansen lawyers, on the day before the deposition, Abdullah filed an application to quash the subpoena. When that failed, he attempted to exercise a Fifth Amendment right ― or the Swedish equivalent ― to refuse to answer questions on the ground that his answers might have incriminated him.
Despite all of this, we are very satisfied with the outcome: Abdullah eventually testified about connections among the hijackers and Saudi government agents Omar al Bayoumi and Fahad al Thumairy. The deposition is deemed “confidential” for now, and we will brief you on the details as soon as we can.
In June we will be deposing Bayoumi and Thumairy and others to fill in more details about the help they provided the hijackers.
Unfortunately, the FBI and DOJ continue to claim “state secrets” and make secret presentations to the Court to keep important documents about Saudi Arabia buried – for instance, we took Abdullah’s deposition without several of his key FBI interview reports. But now, on the eve of the 20th anniversary, it can no longer be acceptable for our government to actively hide the truth.
The coming weeks will be crucial in petitioning the Biden Administration to release the core materials from the FBI’s 15-year long investigation into Saudi Arabia’s role in causing the 9/11 Attacks. We must all work together to urge our government to immediately share the facts with the 9/11 community and the American people.
Congressman Nadler Leads Bicameral Letter to Attorney General Garland Seeking DOJ Review of ‘State Secrets Privilege’
Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), along with Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling for the Department of Justice to review previous administrations’ assertion of the “state secrets privilege” in response to litigation brought by the families of 9/11 victims. Congressman Nadler and Senators Blumenthal, Gillibrand, and Menendez were joined on the letter by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Chris Murphy (D-CT), as well as Representatives Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Grace Meng (D-NY), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), Jim Himes (D-CT), Kathleen Rice (D-NY), John Larson (D-CT), Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Jahana Hayes (D-CT), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), and Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY).
The letter reads in part: “The 9/11 families—many of whom we have the honor of representing in Congress—have fought relentlessly for nearly twenty years to bring to justice all those associated with the worst terrorist attack on American soil…We understand that the families in this litigation seek documents that they believe would show Saudi Arabia’s complicity in the attacks, as well as information related to Operation Encore, an investigation conducted by the FBI between 2007 and 2016. Like other victims, these families deserve to go to court with all the evidence available to them under a fair application of the law.”
The letter can be found here and below.
The Honorable Merrick Garland
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530
Dear Attorney General Garland:
We write respectfully to bring to your attention the decision by the Department of Justice, under the previous Administration, to assert the so-called “state secrets privilege” in litigation brought by victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The 9/11 families—many of whom we have the honor of representing in Congress—have fought relentlessly for nearly twenty years to bring to justice all those associated with the worst terrorist attack on American soil.
Your predecessor, on more than one occasion, asserted the “state secrets privilege” in litigation brought by the victims of the 9/11 attacks and their families against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We understand that the families in this litigation seek documents that they believe would show Saudi Arabia’s complicity in the attacks, as well as information related to Operation Encore, an investigation conducted by the FBI between 2007 and 2016. Like other victims, these families deserve to go to court with all the evidence available to them under a fair application of the law.
As you know, one of our principal concerns with the “state secrets” doctrine is that it has no basis in statute; it is entirely judge-made, and it has frequently been asserted to cover up government misconduct. In many instances, courts have given the executive branch the unilateral power to dismiss a case or withhold information from litigants without needing to show any legitimate concern about the national security sensitivity of the information in question. As such, we appreciate you exercising extreme care with regard to any assertion or maintenance of this privilege.
We respectfully request you review past decisions to invoke the state secrets privilege in this case, in light of all the relevant facts and equities of the matter. Thank you for your prompt consideration of this important matter.
Very Truly Yours
KREINDLER & KREINDLER LLP
James P. Kreindler
Kreindler & Kreindler LLP
New York Office
750 Third Avenue
32nd Floor
New York, NY 10017
