Blumenthal & Cornyn Call on FBI to Explain Decades-Long Failure to Disclose Key 9/11 Evidence
[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and John Cornyn (R-TX) wrote Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel seeking information about the FBI’s apparent failure to disclose evidence about Saudi Arabian national Omar al-Bayoumi to the 9/11 Commission and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during their investigations in the wake of the attacks.
“The FBI’s failure to make this evidence available at the time may have prevented these organizations from getting a full picture of official Saudi government involvement in the 9/11 plot,” the Senators wrote. “The 9/11 victims’ families and the American public deserve to fully understand why the FBI did not promptly provide this evidence during the investigation.”
Last June, reporting revealed that a video depicting al-Bayoumi standing in front of the U.S. Capitol and a notepad containing a sketch of an airplane and a number of mathematical equations had both been turned over to the FBI in late 2001. The FBI allegedly never provided either piece of evidence to the 9/11 Commission or the CIA.
The senators’ letter follows a new report last week by 60 Minutes featuring interviews with former FBI and CIA personnel who played leading roles at the time in the 9/11 investigation that highlighted the potentially critical nature of this evidence.
The full text of the senators’ letter is available here and copied below.
May 12, 2025
The Honorable Kash Patel
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
935 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20535
Via email transmission
Dear Director Patel,
We write to request information about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (“FBI”) failure to disclose critical evidence about Saudi Arabian national Omar al-Bayoumi to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (“9/11 Commission”) and the Central Intelligence Agency (“CIA”) during their investigations in the wake of the attacks. This information includes a video of Mr. al-Bayoumi filmed at the U.S. Capitol in 1999 and obtained by the FBI in the months immediately after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.[1] This information is crucial to ensuring that the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks and the American people have a full picture of both the FBI’s earlier investigations into those attacks as well as Saudi Arabia’s potential involvement.
On June 20, 2024, 60 Minutes reported that a video depicting Mr. al-Bayoumi, an alleged Saudi intelligence agent, standing in front of the U.S. Capitol had been obtained by British police in a raid of Mr. al-Bayoumi’s home on September 21, 2001, and was turned over to the FBI in the following months.[2] In the video, filmed over multiple days, Mr. al-Bayoumi referenced a “plan,” identified existing security positions around the Capitol building, and noted the nearby airport.[3] During the raid, British authorities also recovered a notepad containing a sketch of an airplane and a number of mathematical equations.[4] At that time, the FBI allegedly never turned either piece of evidence over to the 9/11 Commission or the CIA, even though the 9/11 Commission investigated Mr. al-Bayoumi’s role in the attacks and interviewed him in Saudi Arabia in 2003.[5] On April 27, 2025, 60 Minutes aired a follow-up story drawing on interviews with former FBI and CIA personnel who played leading roles at the time in the 9/11 investigation that highlighted the potentially critical nature of this evidence.[6]
It is concerning that the FBI did not turn over this video and sketch to the 9/11 Commission and CIA in the months following the September 11, 2001 attacks.[7] Former officials at both the 9/11 Commission and the CIA underscored the relevance of the evidence to their work and raised questions about whether the FBI handled the evidence properly.[8] The FBI’s failure to make this evidence available at the time may have prevented these organizations from getting a full picture of official Saudi government involvement in the 9/11 plot. The 9/11 victims’ families and the American public deserve to fully understand why the FBI did not promptly provide this evidence during the investigation.
Given these revelations, we request that the FBI provide the following information by May 29, 2025:
- What criteria did the FBI use to determine what evidence to provide to the 9/11 Commission and/or the CIA at the time?
- Which FBI personnel were involved in determining what evidence to provide to the 9/11 Commission and/or the CIA?
- Why was neither the video tape of Omar al-Bayoumi (“Video Tape”) nor Mr. al-Bayoumi’s notepad containing the airplane sketch (“Notepad”) provided to the 9/11 Commission or the CIA?
- Were the FBI officials named in response to Question 2 above aware that the Video Tape and Notepad were in the FBI’s custody when the 9/11 Commission requested FBI records?
- Please provide a detailed chain of custody for the Video Tape and the Notepad from when it was obtained by the FBI to when it was released in federal court in 2024.
- Please provide copies of any analysis the FBI performed on the Notepad or Video Tape.
- Please identify all other records related to Mr. al-Bayoumi obtained by the FBI, as well as whether each record was provided to the 9/11 Commission and the CIA.
We look forward to your prompt response.
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