Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin withdraws plea deal for accused 9/11 terrorists

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WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday withdrewthe controversial plea deal for the three men accused of planning the 9/11 attacks.

"Today, Secretary Austin signed a memo reserving for himself the specific authority to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused in the 9/11 military commission cases," the Defense Department said in a press release. "In addition, as the superior convening authority, the Secretary has also withdrawn from the pre-trial agreements that were signed in those cases."

Austin announced the move in a memoaddressed to Susan Escallier, the convening authority for military commissions, who had worked to negotiate the deal.

"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 said in the letter, which removes Escallier from the case.

The defense secretary, who designated Escalier to serve as convening authority for military commissions in 2023, said that he made the determination "in light of the significance" of the decision to make a plea deal, adding that "responsibility for such a decision should rest with me."

Officials said on Wednesday that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin 'Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi had reached plea agreements. The three men were expected to plead guilty to lesser charges that would prevent them from receiving the death penalty, but the terms of the revoked deal remain unknown.

The plea deal had been negotiated among the accused men, their attorneys and Escallier. Officials previously said that the accused had been scheduled to appear at a hearing at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba next week.

Mohammed is accused of being a mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, which killed 2,977 people.

A White House National Security Council spokesperson declined to comment, referring NBC News to the Defense Department. The Defense Department declined to comment beyond the press release.

Congressional Republicans celebrated Austin's decision to revoke the deal.

Rep. Michael McCaul, who chairs the Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was "glad to see" Austin's move.

"As I said previously, if any case warrants the death penalty, it's this one," said the Texas Republican in a post to X.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said that Austin "did the right thing."

"The previous plea deal would have sent absolutely the wrong signal to terrorists throughout the world," Graham said. "I know the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks will appreciate this — as do I."

The head of 9/11 Justice, a self-described grassroots movement of 9/11 victims' families, expressed frustration over families being left out of the discussions regarding the proceedings against the suspects.

"We are astounded and deeply frustrated that our families were not consulted or even notified in advance of the plea deal or its subsequent revocation," said the group's president Brett Eagleson. "These monsters need to be forced to share every piece of information they have about the attacks and be held fully accountable for the murder of our loved ones."

The plea deal had originally been met with criticism from families of victims and members of Congress.

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee said on Friday before Austin announced his decision that it would open an investigation into the White House's role in the plea deal.

Similarly, Rep. Mike Rogers, the Alabama Republican who serves as the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a letter to Austin that he was "deeply shocked and angered by news" of a plea deal.

Speaker Mike Johnson linked the two GOP-led committees with Austin's decision, saying in a Friday night post to X that "the Biden-Harris Administration is correct to reverse course after receiving letters from @GOPoversight and @HASCRepublicans launching investigations into this terrible plea deal."

Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who served in the Obama administration, slammed the deal in a Thursday statement.

"The people responsible for structuring this awful deal did the best they could. They were dealt a bad hand by the political hacks and those who lost faith in our justice system," Holder told NBC News.

Holder had said in 2009 that the accused men would be brought to trial in federal court in Manhattan, where they could face the death penalty. While that plan did not come to fruition after members of Congress blocked the transfer of all inmates from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to the U.S., the slow pace of the defendants' progress through the military commissions system — a form of military tribunal administered by the Defense Department — resulted in some unlikely support for a federal trial. Former Attorney General William Barr, who served in the administrations of former Presidents Donald Trump and George H.W. Bush, called the military commissions a "hopeless mess" and said the government would "likely succeed in obtaining a conviction" in federal court.