AG Dave Sunday Seeks Frozen Taliban Funds for 9/11 Victims

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday Joins Supreme Court Brief for 9/11 Families

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday joined a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general in filing a legal brief with the United States Supreme Court, demanding that victims and families of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks receive financial judgments from frozen Taliban funds, attorneygeneral.gov reported.

The Legal Battle Over Seventeen Billion in Judgments

The states represented in the coalition include citizens who were among the nearly 3,000 people killed on 9/11, alongside Americans killed and maimed by the Taliban in the years since. Many of these citizens and estates secured roughly $17 billion in final judgments against the Taliban through federal courts after decades of litigation. Despite these rulings, the Second Circuit determined that $3.5 billion in Taliban-controlled funds sitting near Ground Zero remains out of reach because the U.S. Treasury Department froze the money eight days before the Taliban installed their own government and took control of the national bank.

Attorney General Coalition Challenges Second Circuit Statute Reading

The attorney general coalition argues that the Second Circuit misread the federal statute governing blocked assets. Under congressional rules, whenever a person wins a judgment against a terrorist party for an act of terrorism, any U.S. assets belonging to that party—including blocked funds—can be used to satisfy the judgment. The brief asserts this rule applies directly, regardless of the exact timeline of when the Taliban government seized control of Afghanistan.

The victims of September 11 and their families have carried the consequences of that day for 25 years. Those who have secured judgments against the Taliban deserve the opportunity to see those judgments enforced. Pennsylvania stands with these victims and families as they seek justice.

States Participating in the Supreme Court Brief

Alongside Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, the multistate coalition comprises the top legal officers from 30 other states. The participating attorneys general represent Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.