A Manhattan federal judge peppered Saudi Arabia's lawyers with questions Wednesday as they argued that years of discovery have yielded no real evidence of a Saudi government spy helping organize the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels heard daylong oral arguments on Saudi Arabia's renewed motion to be freed from long-running multidistrict litigation brought by victims of the 9/11 attacks who are seeking damages. The judge denied a previous dismissal bid in 2018, opening discovery about whether Saudi government employee Omar al Bayoumi worked at the kingdom's behest to help two future Al Qaeda hijackers settle in California and attend flight school in 2000.

A lawyer for the victims, Gavin Simpson of Kreindler & Kreindler LLP, argued Wednesday that troves of new evidence show Bayoumi was an undercover agent for Saudi Arabia's "militant extremist network" known as the Ministry of Islamic Affairs.

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The 9/11 victims are represented by Robert T. Haefele, Jodi Westbrook Flowers and Donald A. Migliori of Motley Rice LLC, Sean P. Carter, Stephen A. Cozen and Scott Tarbutton of Cozen O'Connor, Steven R. Pounian, Andrew J. Maloney, James Gavin Simpson and Megan Benett of Kreindler & Kreindler LLP and Jerry S. Goldman, Bruce Strong, Ethan Greenberg, Jeremey Shockett and Alexander Greene of Anderson Kill PC.

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