1/Senators John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, and Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, cosponsored S. 3250, “An Act to provide remote access to court proceedings for victims of the 1988 Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.” 
2/ S. 3250 was introduced in the Senate on 11/8/23 & passed by unanimous consent on 12/6. It cleared the House Thursday. Now it just needs President Biden’s signature. Once that happens, the bill, as they say, will become a law.
3/The tragic 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland took the lives of 270 people, including 190 Americans & 43 from the UK. Also people from Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland & Trinidad & Tobago.
4/In December 2020, DOJ charged Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi with the bombing. Subsequently arrested & brought to the US, he's scheduled for trial in 2025 for his role in building the bomb.
5/The bill provides victims' family members access to court proceedings no matter where they are located.
6/ Apparently, it's just that easy. Congress can pass a bill, along bipartisan lines, in just a couple of months to give victims in an important criminal case access to proceedings, even if they live far away. The technology exists, or this bill would not have sailed through.
7/I've written repeatedly in my newsletter about how important public access to the Trump trials is. But currently in federal court, that won't happen. The bill for the Lockerbie bombing victims shows it can happen-if we make it happen. Join me here: joycevance.substack.com/p/if-congress-…
8/It's a good thing that family members of the victims of flight 103 will be able to hear all of the evidence in this trial. They deserve that. They have a right to know. And so do we.
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