Former Rep. Ron Paul said he believes the U.S. government had prior knowledge of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and has kept this information hidden in a classified section of the 9/11 Commission report.
Paul, who made the comments during a radio interview last Friday, also argued that the crimes of Osama bin Laden were "minor" compared to the harm the U.S. government has caused since the 2001 attacks.
"I believe that if we ever get the full truth [about 9/11], we'll find out that our government had it in the records exactly what the plans were, or at least close to it," said Paul, during the interview with Money and Markets host Charles Goyette. "You already mentioned that [the U.S. government] had been warned that something was going to happen."
However, Paul said he doubted that Bush administration officials personally helped plot the attacks.
"Does that prove the fact that our president and others actually sat down and laid the plans and did this? I don’t think it does," he said.
Paul also said the U.S. government has been more destructive than 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.
"Our own government did more harm to the liberties of the American people than bin Laden did," said Paul. "[Bin Laden] was a monster himself, but that was minor compared to the damage done financially, the people that have died. And here we are, 24 years, and we’re still fighting a war in the pretense that had something to do with 9/11."
The former congressman took issue with the term "9/11 truther," arguing that it carried a negative connotation.
"It’s politically very risky to talk about [questioning the 9/11 attacks], because the left and the government defenders are really, really quick to discredit anybody who raises any question whatsoever," said Paul. "They paint you, and they say ‘oh you question this, that means you’re a truther.’ I was always amazed, if you question and you want the truth, how they took a word like ‘truther’ and turned it into a terrible, terrible word."
Paul repeatedly denied during his 2012 presidential campaign that he was a "truther."
In 2012, Paul told ABC News anchor Jake Tapper that the idea that the Bush administration knew about the 9/11 attacks beforehand was "complete nonsense."
"I never bought into that stuff. I never talked about it," Paul said at the time. "About the conspiracy of Bush—of Bush knowing about this? No, no, come on. Come on. Let's be reasonable."
In the interview last Friday, the former congressman also claimed the U.S. government was covering up the full truth of the John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations.
"The Kennedy assassination probe and commission, we don’t know the truth about that, and probably 80 percent of the American people don’t even believe that [Lee Harvey] Oswald was the only one involved," said Paul. "Also we don’t know all we should know about Martin Luther King assassination, either."