A 9/11 widow sued Saudi Arabia two days after Congress overrode President Barack Obama's veto of a bill that allows the survivors of victims to file lawsuits against the country for the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Stephanie Ross DeSimone filed the lawsuit in U.S. district court in Washington, D.C. on Friday, accusing Saudi Arabia of gaving material support to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden for the attacks, Bloomberg reported. DeSimone's husband, Navy Commander Patrick Dunn, was killed in the attack while she was pregnant with their daughter. He died when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, Fox News reported.
DeSimone is suing for wrongful death and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and is demanding unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
Congress's overriding of Obama's veto was the first veto override of his presidency, according to Politico. The Senate voted 97-1 to override Obama's veto and the House followed with a 348-77 vote.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers involved in the 2001 terrorist attacks were Saudi nationals, Bloomberg noted. One of the hijacked jets struck the Pentagon, two destroyed the World Trade Center's north and south towers in New York while another crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought against the hijackers.
In 2004, a commission examining the 9/11 attacks reported that there was "no evidence that the Saudi government, as an institution, or senior officials within the Saudi government funded al-Qaeda," Bloomberg reported.
Classified portions of the report, though, which were released in July, found that the hijackers may have had help from some Saudi officials.
"This legislation is really about pursuing justice," Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn told Politico. "The families have already suffered too much. They've already suffered untold tragedy, of course, and they deserve to find a path to closure that only justice can provide."
Bloomberg reported that a Saudi Arabia's ministry of foreign affairs told the state-run Saudi Press Agency last week that the United States faces "serious unintended consequences" if the bill is not changed.
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