Attorney General Jeff Jackson Calls for Release of Frozen Taliban Funds for 9/11 Victims and Families

(AG Jackson participated in a 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb to honor victims and first responders.)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
Contact: [email protected]
919-538-2809

RALEIGH - Attorney General Jeff Jackson - who enlisted after the attacks of 9/11 and served in Afghanistan - and a bipartisan coalition of 30 attorneys general are asking the Supreme Court of the United States to ensure that frozen Taliban funds go to victims and families of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Attorney General Jackson filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court on behalf of victims and families who have won judgments against the Taliban. The victims won judgments totaling roughly $17 billion against the Taliban, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that $3.5 billion in frozen assets belonging to the Taliban cannot be used toward those judgments. The coalition is asking the Supreme Court to review that decision.

"This is money that rightfully belongs to the victims who survived 9/11 and the families of those who lost their lives," said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. "We are asking the Supreme Court to do the right thing and make sure that it goes to them."

Congress enacted the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) after the 9/11 attacks. The law says that anytime a person obtains a judgement against a terrorist party for an act of terrorism, any assets in the U.S., including frozen assets of the terrorist party, can be used to pay the judgment.

The U.S. Treasury froze the roughly $7 billion that Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Aug. 15, 2021, the day Taliban forces captured Kabul. Eight days later, the Taliban named a Taliban loyalist as DAB's acting governor and established two people designated as terrorists by the Office of Foreign Assets Control as deputy governors. Of the $7 billion in DAB assets, $3.5 billion remains at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. However, the Second Circuit ruled that that money can't be used to fulfill the judgments at issue because the Treasury froze the assets before the Taliban finished installing its own governors at the bank.

Attorney General Jackson's amicus brief argues that the Second Circuit is misinterpreting the law and that the TRIA applies regardless of when the Taliban took over. The brief says that the Second Circuit did not base its ruling on the law's text and conceded that the text gave "no guidance."

The amicus brief asks the Supreme Court to grant a petition to review the ruling.

Attorney General Jackson is joined in filing the brief by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

A copy of the amicus brief is available here.

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