Senator Richard Blumenthal has introduced a resolution in the Senate calling on the government to declassify and release documents related to 9/11. Families of the victims of the massacre believe the documents will show the true extent of the government investigation into the hijackers’ ties to sponsors in Saudi Arabia.
In 2016, the families won the right to sue the Saudi government, when Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA. It did so in the face of a veto from President Barack Obama.
But they say in their quest to bring a suit, the Department of Justice and the FBI have so far denied them access to crucial evidence that they would need in court.
Brett Eagleson from Middletown was 15 when he lost his father Bruce in the twin towers.
“Imagine that your son or your father was murdered," he said, "and you go to the police station and they tell you, 'Well, we kinda have an idea who did it and we have all this information, and why don’t you read through what we have?' And you open up the book and you start reading through it, and you get to the part where - and so-and-so did it - and then it’s just all blacked out.”
The Obama administration strenuously resisted efforts to have the documents declassified. Blumenthal said he hopes Republicans will join him in pressuring the Trump White House.
“The time is long past when sources or methods would be in jeopardy - I respect that possibility as a reason - but we’re 17 years removed from those sources and methods, and if there’s still a need, the United States government ought to be prepared to defend it,” he told a news conference in Hartford Monday.
An identical resolution has been introduced in the House by a Republican member of Congress.