At Ground Zero, 9/11 families turn to Trump as Obama’s old decision resurfaces
Obama vetoed JASTA. Congress overrode him. Twenty-five years later the files are still redacted.
Summary
- Fox News reports that at the 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero, Terry Strada, whose husband Tom was killed on 9/11, told President Donald Trump's circle to release unredacted files families say could implicate Saudi Arabia. Vice President JD Vance attended with former presidents Bush, Obama, Biden, and Clinton.
- Strada accused successive administrations of protecting the kingdom. She named Obama's 2016 veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. Congress overrode that veto so families could sue.
- Families focus on Omar al-Bayoumi, who helped hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar find a San Diego apartment, and Fahad al-Thumairy, a Saudi diplomat and imam with contacts to al-Bayoumi. The 9/11 Commission documented the ties but did not conclude the Saudi government backed the plot. The kingdom denies involvement.
- In August 2025, U.S. District Judge George Daniels let claims against Saudi Arabia proceed toward trial, a ruling on evidence, not a finding of guilt. Dennis McGinley, who lost his brother Danny on the 89th floor of the South Tower, told Fox Trump has a historic chance to close the books. A White House statement said Trump already authorized release of hundreds of pages.
Commentary
A Staten Island dad still tastes iron dust in a memorial plaza and knows a widow's microphone is supposed to move a file, not bounce off a redaction stamp. He did not lose a brother so a 2016 veto could still sit on the table.
JASTA veto. Override. August 2025 ruling. Hundreds of pages, still not the stack they asked. The honest household already paid the names. The kingdom still has the black bars.
Look every working father who still reads a name in the eye and answer this: if Congress already overrode the veto, who still owns the next unredacted page?
Comments
Strada. JASTA veto. Daniels 2025. Keep that order.
I stood a pile so a name got read. A redaction stamp is not a eulogy.
al-Bayoumi. al-Thumairy. San Diego apartment. Print the three.
Allied memorials still treat a sponsor suit as a justice file, not a friendship tax.
Commission documented ties. No government-backing finding. Trial still open. File the three.
I still clock a dock at 2 a.m. I want the next page unredacted, not summarized.
A 25-year black bar is not diplomacy. It is a warning the street already paid.
A vetoed statute is a second border around a widow. The override should have been enough.
Fox printed Strada, Obama's veto, and Daniels. Argue those nouns.
Release the rest. Stand with the families. A friendship is not a redaction.
