Shocker: FBI Lied, Hid Evidence, Covered Up State of Disorder

[IceWizard]

Shocker: FBI Lied, Hid Evidence, 
Covered Up State of Disorder

APRIL 29, 2020|JUDICIAL WATCH



Notorious for failing in its duty to thwart terrorist attacks, 
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is under fire again, 
this time from a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators who want 
the beleaguered law enforcement agency investigated for 
“major abnormalities” involving evidence in a terrorism case.
Known for its corrupt method of operating, the FBI appears 
to be hiding evidence critical to a pending
 Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) lawsuit 
brought by family members of 9/11 victims. Two years ago, 
the FBI received a civil subpoena in the case and the lawmakers 
believe the agency has committed numerous violations and 
may be trying to conceal that its “investigative files are in a 
state of disorder.”

In a letter to the FBI watchdog, the Department of Justice
Inspector General (DOJ IG), the senators write about 
“troubling reports concerning the FBI’s irregular treatment of 
a civil subpoena issued by the September 11 families.” 
The lawmakers, New York Democrat Charles Schumer, 
Iowa Republican Charles Grassley and 
Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal mention half a 
dozen concerns that merit a probe by the IG, including the 
FBI’s refusal to conduct methodological searches of its 
electronic databases, “instead empowering FBI officials 
with inherent conflicts of interest to hand-select the materials 
to be considered for possible production, and to control the 
information that is produced.” Judicial Watch has regularly 
encountered similar obstacles over the years in efforts to 
obtain public records from the FBI, most recently involving 
the shady anti-Trump “dossier” masterminded by corrupt FBI 
officials plotting against the president. Last month the FBI used 
coronavirus as an excuse to shut down its electronic 
public records operations.

In the 9/11 lawsuit families are seeking information about the 
FBI’s investigation of two Saudi Arabian government 
employees—Omar al Bayoumi and Fahad al Thumairy—who 
provided 9/11 hijackers Nawaf al Hazmiand and Khalid al Mihdhar 
and their accomplices “substantial assistance.” Thumairy was a 
Saudi consular official in Los Angeles and his ties to the hijackers 
are detailed in a once-classified portion of 
the 9/11 Commission Report that was declassified in 2016. 
In the spring of 2018 attorneys representing the 9/11 families 
served a civil subpoena on the FBI for the information critical to 
their case, but there may have been major abnormalities in the 
FBI’s handling of that subpoena that deserve the 
inspector general’s attention, the lawmakers write.

Here is what the veteran legislators allege that merits a probe; 
departures from established processes for responding to civil 
discovery demands, which would violate the FBI’s legal obligation 
and are designed to guard against conflicts of interest within the 
agency; misstatements to the federal court presiding over the 
litigation about the actual status of investigations; misstatements 
to the federal court regarding the sensitivity of the evidence being 
sought, including efforts to conceal original classification 
designations; efforts to conceal that the FBI’s investigative files 
are in a state of disorder; efforts to conceal the fact that key 
investigative materials collected after the attacks were never 
properly analyzed; refusal to conduct methodological searches 
of FBI’s electronic databases, instead empowering FBI officials 
with inherent conflicts of interest to hand-select the materials to 
be considered for possible production and to control the
information that is produced.

“These allegations by the families raise questions as to whether 
FBI personnel may be acting in improper ways to withhold 
evidence the 9/11 families are entitled to receive, and that this 
obstruction may be driven by an effort to shield the Bureau and 
individual FBI officials from embarrassment,” the senators write. 
“Obviously, any irregularities, abuse, fraud, or improprieties in 
the handling of the 9/11 families’ subpoena for evidence are 
entirely unacceptable.” 
The lashing continues: 
“The September 11 attacks represent a singular and defining 
tragedy in the history of our Nation. Nearly twenty years later, 
the 9/11 families and American public still have not received 
the full and transparent accounting of the potential sources of 
support for those attacks to which they are entitled. 
Circumstances that leave the impression that our government 
is hiding facts about 9/11 from the families and public tear at 
the very fabric of our democracy and erode trust in our government.”