The families of the victims of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and others are calling on the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General to investigate the FBI’s handling of evidence from the attacks, The Hill reports.
The complaint calls on Inspector General Michael Horowitz to "investigate the FBI’s statements made in response to our subpoena in the 9/11 litigation that the FBI 'lost' or is simply no longer able to find key evidence about the individuals who provided substantial support inside the U.S. to the 9/11 hijackers."
It adds, ''The Inspector General should examine whether one or more FBI officials committed willful misconduct with intent to destroy or secrete evidence to avoid its disclosure. Given the importance of the missing evidence at issue to the 9/11 investigation, as well as the repeated mishandling by the FBI of that evidence, an innocent explanation is not believable.''
A spokesperson for Horowitz’s office and the FBI both declined to comment when asked by The Hill.
Last August, the 9/11 families and others sent a statement to President Joe Biden calling on him to stay away from events commemorating the attacks until he makes his administration more transparent about information on the attacks.
''As I promised during my campaign, my administration is committed to ensuring the maximum degree of transparency under the law, and to adhering to the rigorous guidance issued during the Obama-Biden Administration on the invocation of the state secrets privilege,'' Biden said at the time, following a statement from the Justice Department that it would review the classified documents in question.
''In this vein, I welcome the Department of Justice’s filing today, which commits to conducting a fresh review of documents where the government has previously asserted privileges, and to doing so as quickly as possible,'' he added.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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