A widow of a 9/11 victim used the annual reading of the names of those killed to plead with the Trump administration about Saudi Arabian officials’ alleged ties to the terror attack, which the kingdom has dismissed.

The big picture: During the New York City ceremony for 9/11’s 25th anniversary, Terry Strada slammed Saudi Arabia, which Axios’ Barak Ravid reports is actively urging President Trump to assist them with U.S. military action.

• Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and Trump have maintained a close relationship, while 9/11 families have expressed discomfort over U.S. officials’ past engagement with Saudi Arabia.

Driving the news: “For 25 years, administration after administration, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families,” Strada said during the ceremony.

• “It has been one betrayal after another. President Trump can still change that,” she said. “Tell the Saudis to stop lying. Tell them that if they want to be friends with the USA, they cannot continue to deny all of this, all of the pain, all of the destruction that we have all been suffering through.”
• She thanked Vice President Vance for attending the ceremony and urged him to “carry that message back.”
• Another man participating in reading the names of the victims also appealed to Trump to “release the unredacted files that implicate Saudi Arabia while what’s left of the victims’ families are still alive to see it.”

Catch up quick: The oil-rich nation has long fought ongoing claims from victims’ families, but last year, a federal judge determined that enough evidence existed to infer the kingdom employed two operatives to assist the hijackers, Axios’ Marc Caputo previously reported.

• Families have pressed the Trump administration to declassify more government records.
• “We’ve seen him do it for the JFK files. Why not the 9/11 files?” Brett Eagleson, whose father was killed on 9/11, recently asked ABC News.

Between the lines: Saudi Arabia has maintained close ties to the U.S. for decades, with the nation being one of the U.S.’ biggest purchasers of military equipment. The two countries often work together on counterintelligence and military operations.

• Trump visited Saudi Arabia as his first foreign trip during both of his presidential terms, and his family has extensive business ties in the nation.
• During an Oval Office meeting between MBS and Trump last year, an ABC reporter pressed Trump on his family’s Saudi business deals and asked MBS about 9/11 families’ anger and the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
• In response, Trump blasted ABC as “fake news,” denied being tied to the family business and defended MBS, saying “a lot of people didn’t like” Khashoggi.
• MBS said he felt “painful” about the 9/11 families but argued, “We have to focus on reality, reality based in CIA documents and based on a lot of documents that Osama bin Laden used Saudi people in that event for one main purpose … to destroy the American-Saudi relation[ship].”

Editor’s note: This is a breaking news story and will be updated.