[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 164 (Thursday, October 17, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5884-S5889]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              SAUDI FUGITIVE DECLASSIFICATION ACT OF 2019

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I have come to the floor to fight for 
answers--answers that are long overdue.
  In 2018, my hometown newspaper, The Oregonian, identified a handful 
of cases where Saudi nationals accused of serious crimes in the United 
States, like manslaughter and sexual assault, fled the country and 
escaped American justice.
  Since then, The Oregonian has identified numerous similar cases--in 
fact, almost two dozen such cases across the United States. That 
includes 19 in just the last 7 years.
  Today I want to tell the Senate about just one of those cases.
  Three years ago, not far from my home in Southeast Portland, a young 
woman had her life taken from her. Fallon Smart was then a rising 
sophomore at Franklin High School, and she was aspiring to be a 
teacher. By all accounts, she would have been a terrific teacher.
  She was 15, and according to everybody who knew her, Fallon was warm 
and smart and friendly. She had her whole life ahead of her.
  According to police, she lost her life when she was crossing the 
street in front of stopped traffic, and a vehicle illegally swerved 
into the left-hand lane and hit her at 55 or 60 miles per hour. Her mom 
was in a car half a block away and ran to her daughter. Fallon died in 
her mother's arms, and the car that hit her just sped away.
  A Saudi Arabian college student named Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah later 
returned to the scene and was arrested. He was eventually charged with 
manslaughter in Fallon's death and then released on $1 million bail. 
The Saudi consulate posted his $100,000 bond, according to The 
Oregonian newspaper.
  In the United States, in our country, there was every expectation 
that Mr. Noorah would get a fair shake from the justice system. Our 
justice system was working the right way here until 2 weeks before Mr. 
Noorah was scheduled to go to trial. His tracking bracelet was somehow 
cut, and he disappeared. Mr. Noorah has never stood trial for Fallon 
Smart's death.
  Eventually, this spring, the State Department confirmed in a letter 
to me that Mr. Noorah had returned to Saudi Arabia.
  I felt then, and I do today, this raises an important and a serious 
question: How does a foreign national charged with manslaughter, whose 
passport was seized, disappear from the United States without a trace? 
How does this person escape the country and make it thousands of miles 
back to Saudi Arabia with there being no record of his doing so?
  News reports in 2018 suggest that the Saudi Arabian Government knew 
about Mr. Noorah and these other fugitives and potentially helped them 
flee justice.
  I have five children. I cannot imagine the grief I would feel if one 
of them was taken from me, and the person responsible somehow managed 
to evade the justice system. It is almost impossible to comprehend the 
anger and the helplessness and the frustration any parent would feel in 
a situation like this.
  I met with Fallon's mom Fawn, and while she and all of Fallon's loved 
ones have borne this miscarriage of justice with extraordinary grace, 
they are just heartbroken.
  In addition to being heartbroken, they are angry. They are outraged 
by the notion that the person charged with killing their daughter may 
have just been able to escape scot-free and face no consequences for 
his action.
  For some time, I have been demanding information from the Trump 
administration. In my view, the victims of these crimes, their 
families, and the American people are owed some essential answers. How 
did this happen? What is the U.S. Government doing about it?
  I have written the Department of Justice. I have written the State 
Department. I have written the U.S. Marshals Service. I have written to 
the Department of Homeland Security. As far as I can tell, I would have 
gotten better answers from the Saudi royal family themselves.
  In fact, when I asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo what he was 
doing to try to return the Saudi fugitives to the United States, 
basically what his Department did is that we just got a collective 
shrug of the shoulders. I sent the Secretary of State a letter last 
December. He didn't respond.
  So I sent another letter in February. I said: The State Department 
needs to use all its resources and all the tools at its disposal to 
hold the Saudi Government accountable. I asked whether our Ambassador 
pressed the Saudi Government about this disturbing, shocking pattern of 
Saudi nationals skipping bail.
  The State Department finally did respond to my second letter. What I 
got was a whole bunch of nothing. One of Mr. Pompeo's aides said that 
without an extradition treaty, there wasn't anything they could do 
about it. This is from a Secretary who tried to rebrand State as the 
``Department of Swagger.'' That swagger was nowhere to be found when it 
was time to protect innocent Americans.
  Today, I am not writing any more letters. I am here on the Senate 
floor asking for action--action today. I am

[[Page S5885]]

seeking to pass the Saudi Fugitive Declassification Act of 2019. My 
bill requires the FBI Director, in coordination with the Director of 
National Intelligence, to quickly--quickly--declassify any and all 
information related to a key question: whether the Government of Saudi 
Arabia helped any Saudi nationals escape the country when those Saudi 
nationals were awaiting trial or sentencing for a criminal offense.
  Let me just repeat that so there is no confusion. The bill requires 
that the FBI Director and what is called the DNI, or the Director of 
National Intelligence, would quickly--quickly--declassify any and all 
information on the issue of whether the Government of Saudi Arabia 
helped any Saudi nationals escape the country when those Saudi 
nationals were awaiting trial or sentencing for a criminal offense in 
the United States.
  I believe what I am asking for today must happen in the name of 
justice immediately. The American people deserve answers. The people I 
represent at home in our neighborhoods in Southeast Portland want 
answers. These are not academic matters. This is not about a series of 
victimless crimes.
  This is about manslaughter. It is about rape. It is about a whole 
array of ugly offenses. This is about real people, real families--
families who have suffered immeasurable pain. They deserve to see 
justice served. When individuals who are charged with violent crimes--
no victimless crimes here, violent crimes--manage to escape and when 
the United States fails to do much of anything about it, it undermines 
public safety and it harms the U.S. justice system.
  If, as some of the press stories have suggested, the Saudi Government 
has helped these alleged criminals escape justice, the American people 
have the right to be doubly concerned. Is the public image of Saudi 
Arabia a higher priority than the safety of American citizens?
  Any action by a foreign government to thwart our criminal justice 
system would be an attack on our national security and our sovereignty. 
If that is what has happened, then, all Americans deserve to know.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the U.S. Senate proceed 
to the immediate consideration of S. 2635, submitted earlier today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 2635) to require the Director of the Federal 
     Bureau of Investigation to declassify any and all information 
     relating to whether the government of Saudi Arabia assisted a 
     citizen or national of Saudi Arabia in departing the United 
     States while the citizen or national was awaiting trial or 
     sentencing for a criminal offense committed in the United 
     States, and for other purposes.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Mr. WYDEN. I further ask unanimous consent that the bill be 
considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be 
considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or 
debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill (S. 2635) was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, 
was read the third time, and passed, as follows:

                                S. 2635

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Saudi Fugitive 
     Declassification Act of 2019''.

     SEC. 2. DECLASSIFICATION OF ANY AND ALL INFORMATION RELATING 
                   TO ACTIONS BY GOVERNMENT OF SAUDI ARABIA TO 
                   ASSIST PERSONS IN DEPARTING UNITED STATES WHO 
                   WERE AWAITING TRIAL OR SENTENCING IN UNITED 
                   STATES.

       Not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of 
     this Act, the Director of the Federal Bureau of 
     Investigation, in coordination with the Director of National 
     Intelligence, shall declassify any and all information 
     related to whether the government of Saudi Arabia materially 
     assisted or facilitated any citizen or national of Saudi 
     Arabia in departing from the United States while the citizen 
     or national was awaiting trial or sentencing for a criminal 
     offense committed in the United States.

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry.
  With that action, has this bill now been passed?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. It has.
  Mr. WYDEN. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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