9/11 Family Members Demand Trump Admin Release Docs ‘Deep State Has Hidden’ During Memorial

Two family members of 9/11 victims demanded during a 25th anniversary memorial Friday that the Trump administration release files that could potentially shed more light on what role Saudi Arabia played in the terrorist attack.

During a ceremony at the National 9/11 Memorial in New York City, family members of 9/11 victims called for the Trump administration to tell Saudi Arabia, home to Osama bin Laden and most of the hijackers, to “stop lying” about its alleged role in the attacks and demanded that the federal government release related documents. Saudi Arabia has long been accused of playing a part in the terrorist attacks, with allegations ranging from direct Saudi involvement, to theories that the CIA used Saudi assets as cover in a bid to obtain human intelligence from two of the hijackers.

Terry Strada slammed Saudi Arabia during the ceremony after reading the name of her deceased husband, Tom Strada, saying: “How can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder?,” Fox 5 New York reported.

“Yes, we finally made it into a court and proved that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia fomented a rancid culture of anti-American terrorism around the globe and then sent its agents to support the radical Islamic hijackers so they could attack you and all of our loved ones,” Strada added.

Strada went on to criticize the U.S. government, suggesting that previous presidential administrations chose to “protect the Saudis.”

“For 25 years, administration after administration, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families,” Strada said, according to Fox 5. “Tell the Saudis to stop lying. Tell them that if they want to be friends with the USA they cannot continue to deny all of this, all of the pain, all of the destruction that we’ve been suffering through.”

Vice President JD Vance was notably in attendance at Friday’s remembrance ceremony in New York City alongside former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, The Hill reported.

“Please carry that message back,” Strada said to Vance, Fox 5 reported. “Stand with the families. Stand with the survivors. Stand with Americans. As my husband, Tom, would’ve said, that is always the right thing to do.”

Additionally, the nephew of Lisa Marie Terry, who was also killed during 9/11, claimed during the ceremony that “the Deep State has hidden the truth about what happened 25 years ago,” The Washington Times reported.

“For 25 years, the Deep State has hidden the truth about what happened 25 years ago,” the nephew said. “President Trump, you’re our last hope. Release the unredacted files that implicate Saudi Arabia, while what’s left of the victims’ families are still alive to see it.”

Saudi Arabia was notably the first foreign kingdom to face a lawsuit in U.S. federal court under the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act of 2016 over the terror attacks, Axios reported in November 2025. Roughly 10,000 victims’ families and insurers are seeking damages in the lawsuit, with the case estimated to involve claims worth as much as $1 trillion, according to the outlet.

In August 2025, a U.S. federal judge rejected Saudi Arabia’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit brought by families of Sept. 11 victims, allowing the yearslong case—which has uncovered new evidence and strained U.S.-Saudi relations—to move forward, The New York Times (NYT) reported. Judge George B. Daniels of the Southern District of New York, a Clinton appointee, ruled that Saudi Arabia could still face the lawsuit under an exception in the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, per the outlet.

To invoke the exception in the 2016 law, the plaintiffs sought to demonstrate that two Sept. 11 hijackers who were establishing themselves in California received assistance from at least one Saudi government agent acting in an official capacity.

The judge ruled that one man with links to the Saudi government, Omar al-Bayoumi, “seemed to serve as a connecting point between the hijackers and many other people who had provided assistance to the hijackers at one point or another,” and that his activity was “inconsistent with his official employment title” as an accountant for a Saudi aviation company, the NYT reported.

Daily Caller News Foundation co-founder Tucker Carlson alleged during a September 2025 episode of his online video series, “The 9/11 Files,” that the CIA orchastrated an operation involving al-Bayoumi and two of the 9/11 hijackers in an attempt to gain human intelligence.

“According to declassified government documents, an investigator from the 9/11 Commission said Al-Bayoumi was receiving substantial sums of money from the Saudi Embassy in Washington … prior to the 9/11 attacks,” Carlson said. “[And] that the money was being funneled from accounts at Riggs Bank in Georgetown belonging to Haifa bint Faisal, the wife of the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. … By using the Saudis as a proxy to recruit the 9/11 hijackers, the CIA gave itself cover [so] if things went wrong, they could push a narrative that blamed the Saudi government for the attacks, which is what they did.”

The families pursued legal action against Saudi Arabia in various forms since 2003, but only recently uncovered videos, notes, and other records that they say provide compelling evidence of Saudi government involvement—allegations the kingdom has repeatedly denied, according to ABC News.