GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Tuesday a classified portion of the 9/11 Commission’s report should have been released “a long time ago” and predicted there are some “very revealing things” in the papers.
“I think we should have seen it a long time ago,” Mr. Trump said on “Fox and Friends.” “I think I know what it’s going to say. It’s going to be very profound having to do with Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia’s role on the World Trade Center [in] the attack, and that’s very serious stuff.”
President Obama is facing pressure to declassify 28 pages from the report that reportedly deal with possible ties Saudi officials had with the hijackers. Fifteen of the 19 terrorists were Saudi nationals.
The White House has said Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper is in the process of reviewing the papers.
“I’ve said it for a long time: We attacked Iraq, and frankly by attacking Iraq, they were not the ones that knocked down the World Trade Center,” Mr. Trump said. “Now, I’ve been saying that for a long time. Let’s see what the papers say. I think they should have been released a long time ago.”
“I think they’re finally going to be, at least in some form, released,” he said. “It’s sort of nice to know who your friends are, and perhaps who your enemies are, but you’re going to see some very revealing things in those papers, and I look forward to reading [them].”
Mr. Trump might have made a vague reference to the secret papers that are part of the report while campaigning in South Carolina in February.
“It wasn’t the Iraqis. You will find out who really knocked down the World Trade Center,” he said then. “[Because] they have papers in there that are very secret. You may find it’s the Saudis, OK? But you will find out.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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