The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday announced an investigation into the New Orleans terrorist attack that left 15 people dead on New Year’s Day, as well as the explosion outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas that left the perpetrator dead on the same day.
Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., sent letters to the Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense and the FBI requesting more information about New Orleans attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s background and motive.
They are also requesting more information from Meta about Jabbar’s Facebook activity leading up to the deadly, planned attack, noting that the Texas native motivated by ISIS extremism posted five videos to his Facebook page hours before he drove a truck through New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street.
“The public deserves complete transparency and the truth regarding the New Orleans terrorist attack and the Las Vegas car explosion,” the chairmen wrote. “While we understand the investigation into both of these incidents is ongoing, we expect your agencies to be forthcoming and responsive to oversight requests from Congress on this very serious matter.”
HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE SAYS ‘NATIONAL SECURITY BLUNDERS’ OF PAST 4 YEARS HAVE EMBOLDENED TERRORISTS
Shamsud-Din Jabbar pictured in an undated photograph released by the FBI after he attacked New Orleans’ Bourbon Street with a pickup truck and died in a shootout with responding officers. (FBI)
The FBI has confirmed whistleblower claims to the senators’ offices that the FBI Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the New Orleans field office was on vacation during the New Year’s attack and did not return until Jan. 2.
“These are major public events that a SAC should be present for. The FBI failed to note this in any of the joint briefings it provided to Congress and must provide more information,” the chairmen said.
AMERICAN RADICALIZED BY ISIS EXPRESSED ‘EXCITEMENT’ ABOUT TRAVELING OVERSEAS TO SUPPORT TERRORIST GROUP: FBI
New Orleans police and federal agents investigate a terrorist attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year’s Day on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (Chris Granger/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)
The chairmen note in their letters that Jabbar served in the U.S. Army between 2007 and 2015. He “was apparently deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010” and later “reportedly joined the Army Reserve as an information technology specialist until 2020.”
NEW ORLEANS TERRORIST RADICALIZED BY ISIS ONLINE WITHIN WEEKS, FBI DIRECTOR SAYS
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Additionally, Grassley and Johnson are requesting information about the background and motive of Matthew Alan Livelsberger, the man behind an explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, which also occurred on Jan. 1. Livelsberger died of a self-inflicted gunshot prior to detonating a rented Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump tower.
BOURBON STREET TERROR VICTIMS SUE NEW ORLEANS AS LOUISIANA AG INVESTIGATES SECURITY LAPSES
This undated photo, provided by the Las Vegas Police Department, shows the Tesla Cybertruck involved in an explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. (Las Vegas Police Department via AP)
Livelsberger, who served as an Army master sergeant, was from Colorado Springs. He had “enlisted as a Special Forces trainee and served on active duty from January 2006 to March 2011, then served in the National Guard from March 2011 to July 2012, and in the Army Reserve from July 2012 to December 2012,” the chairmen wrote. He re-entered active duty in December 2012 with U.S. Army Special Operations and was on leave from his duty station in Germany at the time of his death.
While the FBI has said there was no connection between the two incidents that occurred on the same day, Grassley and Johnson note that both perpetrators overlapped during their military service at Fort Bragg and in Afghanistan, and they both rented vehicles from a company called Turo.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT VICTIMS OF NEW ORLEANS TERRORIST ATTACK
The FBI continues to investigate the Bourbon Street attack.
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Jabbar had visited New Orleans on two occasions prior to the Jan. 1 attack — once on Oct. 30, 2024, and again on Nov. 10, 2024. The terrorist also visited Cairo, Egypt, and Toronto, Canada, prior to the attack, the FBI said.
While Jabbar apparently acted alone, authorities are still investigating whether he had any accomplices.
