Todd Blanche Insists He’s ‘Not Keeping Records’ From 9/11 Families Under Pointed Questioning from CBS Correspondent

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Attorney General Todd Blanche insisted Monday that he’s “not keeping records” from the 9/11 families who’ve asked to see them.

On the 25th anniversary of the attack that killed thousands of Americans, widow Terry Strada called on the Trump administration to release evidence and hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the attacks. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia, and the kingdom has been blamed for turning a blind eye to al-Qaeda fundraising prior to the attacks.

“President Trump said he would consider families’ requests to release additional records concerning possible Saudi links to the 9-11 attackers,” CBS News’s Nicole Sganga said to Blanche in a sit-down interview. “You know, families, bipartisan members of Congress, have been seeking those disclosures for years. Does the Justice Department object to the release of any remaining 9-11 records concerning possible Saudi links?”

“We want to be as transparent as possible,” Blanche answered, before repeating that the Trump administration has been the most transparent in modern history.

“Have you reviewed those records?” Sganga asked.

“It depends on the records,” Blanche said, continuing:

It’s not as if we’re keeping records from the American people. Some of these records are highly classified for reasons that are appropriate. Sometimes there’s documents that are classified and they shouldn’t be, and so those are the ones that we’re going to release to the American public. We’ve already released a lot. President Trump talked about this weekend that we’re going to continue to work to release as many as we can. The one thing that we are not doing, we’re not protecting people. The reason that we’re not releasing documents has nothing to do with protecting any government or any entity. It’s just to protect genuine classified information.

“But for the families,” Sganga asked, “what should they expect in terms of timeline, and what is your commitment to them?”

“Well, so we’ve already released a lot since we started,” Blanche said. “We are going to continue to do so. A lot of the documents are not — there’s some that are DOJ, there’s some that are located in other agencies. Other agencies are doing the same thing. You saw the CIA released a bunch of documents on 9-11, and I know that DHS and Homeland Security also is looking to release some documents, so there’ll be more records coming out.”

Blanche added, “And so, to the families that are still looking for answers, we are too, and that’s what we’re going to deliver to them.”

On his way home from Ireland Sunday, President Trump had the following exchange with a reporter over the issue:

REPORTER: 9/11 families on Friday asked you to help hold Saudi Arabia accountable for 9/11. They’re asking you to release more records that tie maybe some of the hijackers or the people to Saudi Arabia.

TRUMP: Yeah, I heard that.

REPORTER: Would you be open to that?

TRUMP: Well, I’m going to look at it when I get back. I know they asked me on Friday. I’ll be looking at it when I get back.

REPORTER: Do you think you’d be open to that though?

TRUMP: I could be. Yeah.

Trump has consistently favored the Saudi government, and even stepped in to defend Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last year when a U.S. reporter asked about his involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump also recently approved an agreement to provide Saudi Arabia with a controversial civilian nuclear enrichment program.

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