The Pentagon filed an emergency request with a federal appeals court Tuesday in an effort to halt three accused 9/11 terrorists from entering into plea agreements the Biden administration handed them earlier this year.
The government’s appeal to the DC Circuit Court follows multiple military court’s ruling that the sweetheart plea deals granted to alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-conspirators – deals that would spare them the death penalty – are valid despite Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s attempt to revoke them.
In the Biden administration’s latest filing, Brian Fletcher, the Justice Department’s principal deputy solicitor general, argued that the case involving the three 9/11 plotters is of “unique national importance” and Austin’s authority as defense secretary was “improperly curtailed” in the previous court rulings.
“That ruling countermands the Secretary’s considered judgment about the appropriate handling of a case of unique national importance,” Fletcher wrote, according to Politico.
“Preserving the Secretary of Defense’s authority to make fundamental decisions about the handling of the prosecutions of the individuals allegedly responsible for those attacks is a matter of critical importance warranting the issuance of extraordinary relief,” he added.
The Post first-reported in July that Mohammed and fellow Guantanamo Bay detainees Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi had entered into pre-trial agreements in exchange for pleading guilty to war crimes.
The plea deals, which would allow the men to avoid trial and capital punishment but ensure they live out their lives behind bars, were offered by prosecutors with the Pentagon’s Office of Military Commissions.
Family members of several of the 2,977 people killed during the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Somerset County, Penn., were outraged at the news.
Austin, 71, revoked the shocking plea deals three days after word got out but a military judge determined in November that the plea agreements were valid and dismissed the Pentagon chief’s order to throw them out.
The following month, a military appeals court ruled against Austin’s appeal.
Mohammed, who has been in US custody since 2003, is scheduled to enter his guilty plea on Friday at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
His two co-conspirators are due to enter them next week.
