Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin scuttled a shocking plea deal with the man behind the September 11 terrorist attacks that would have guaranteed he did not face the death penalty.
Austin revoked the plea deal on Friday and relieved the subordinate responsible for negotiating the deal.
“I have determined that, in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused in the above-referenced case, responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior convening authority under the Military Commissions Act of 2009. Effective immediately, I hereby withdraw your authority in the above-referenced case to enter into a pre-trial agreement and reserve such authority to myself,” Austin wrote in a memo.
Here’s some of what Fox News reported on the stunning reversal and what it says about the Biden administration:
The stunning reversal Friday of a plea deal for the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks and his accomplices won praise and demands for justice from victims groups and Republican lawmakers.
“The Biden-Harris Administration is correct to reverse course after receiving letters from @GOPoversight and @HASCRepublicans launching investigations into this terrible plea deal,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., posted on X after news broke that Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III had revoked the deal.
“Now deliver long awaited justice for 9/11 families,” he said.
Pentagon prosecutors stoked national outrage Thursday when they announced a plea agreement with Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, who are awaiting trial in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The terms and conditions of the deal were never disclosed, but it took the death penalty off the table, three relatives of 9/11 victims were told by the Office of Military Commissions (OMC), the New York Post reported.
The World Trade Center attacks killed nearly 3,000 people in the worst terror attack on U.S. soil in American history. Families of the victims, groups that represent them and lawmakers expressed bewilderment and fury that those who planned the attack might not be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The House Oversight and Armed Services Committees separately announced investigations into the plea deals, which Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., called, “unconscionable.”