Blanche vows to release more 9/11 docs: "We're not protecting people"

Kansas City, Missouri — Attorney General Todd Blanche vowed that the federal government will continue releasing records related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, doubling down on U.S. assertions that documents still being withheld are not being kept secret to protect Saudi Arabia or any other government.

"The one thing that we are not doing, we're not protecting people," Blanche said in an exclusive interview with CBS News. "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]."

Blanche weighed in Monday, following renewed pressure from 9/11 family members, some of whom appealed directly to the Trump administration during Friday's commemoration marking the 25th year since the Ground Zero attacks. They called for the release of unredacted documents, publicly accusing successive administrations of withholding evidence related to Saudi Arabia. Thousands of 9/11 family members have pursued a long-running lawsuit against Saudi Arabia for possibly providing support to the hijackers.

As a result of their lawsuit, more information has come to light already. Last year, a "60 Minutes" report revealed new evidence about one figure in the investigation, Omar al-Bayoumi, who met two of the hijackers and helped them find housing in San Diego. He claimed he met them by chance, but the 9/11 families believe he has deeper ties to them and to the Saudi government. Years after the attack, the families' lawsuit resulted in the release of a video of al-Bayoumi filming the entrances of the U.S. Capitol and pointing out its location relative to the Washington Monument, and at some points referencing a "plan."

In addition to the Capitol video, an airplane sketch and math formula were also seized from Bayoumi's U.K. apartment and turned over to the FBI in 2001. One FBI field investigator told "60 Minutes" he didn't know about the sketch until it was about to be archived or destroyed. When he obtained it, he took it to aviation experts, who told him a pilot could use the formula to calculate the rate of descent to hit a target on the horizon. The evidence had never been shared with the FBI field agents who worked on the case or with top intelligence officials.

Investigators have long believed the Capitol may have been the intended target of Flight 93, which crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers overtook the hijackers.

Asked Sunday about the families' remarks as he prepared to return to Washington from Ireland, President Trump told reporters, "I'm going to look at it when I get back."

Blanche said Monday that additional records would be made public — though the nation's top law enforcement official did not provide a timeline.

"Sometimes there's documents that are classified and they shouldn't be," Blanche said. "And so those are the ones that we're going to release."

Asked what families still seeking answers should expect, he addressed the families directly.

"There'll be more records coming out," Blanche said. "And so, to the families that are still looking for answers, we are, too.