ProPublica Investigation Finds FBI Mishandled Key Evidence Linking Saudi Intelligence Co-optee to 9/11 Hijackers

A ProPublica investigation published September 10, drawing on FBI documents declassified under a 2021 executive order and now filed in a 9/11 families' federal lawsuit against Saudi Arabia, found that evidence seized from Omar al-Bayoumi in Birmingham, England, in September 2001 was not shared with the British interrogators who questioned him or widely circulated within the FBI's own Penttbom investigation 12. A May 2002 FBI memo shows the San Diego field office was asked to review only 5 of more than 80 videotapes seized from Bayoumi, two of them duplicates 12. British investigator David Campbell told ProPublica he was not briefed on Bayoumi's 1998 FBI investigation or on materials including a handwriting diagram calculating an airplane trajectory and a video of Bayoumi touring the U.S. Capitol 12. The FBI's Washington field office confirmed in 2017 that Bayoumi was paid a monthly stipend as a co-optee, or part-time agent, of Saudi intelligence services from the late 1990s until 9/11, records withheld from the families as state secrets during Trump's first term before their later release 12. Representatives of 9/11 families, including Kathleen Zapata, this week renewed demands that the Justice Department disclose what happened to the evidence, while a White House spokesperson said the administration is "working diligently on identifying records responsive to these families' request" 1234.