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Federal appeals court tosses plea deal for 9/11 terror mastermind, two other plotters
The split 2-1 D.C. Circuit appeals court decision ruled in favor of former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who had attempted to revoke the plea deal last year because he did not personally approve it.
A federal appeals court on Friday tossed a plea deal between the alleged mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terror attack and the federal government, which was reached under the Biden administration.
The plea deal would have allowed alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to plead guilty to plotting the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., in exchange for eliminating the death penalty. The deal was also offered to and accepted by two of his accomplices.
The split 2-1 D.C. Circuit appeals court decision ruled in favor of former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who had attempted to revoke the plea deal last year because he did not personally approve it. Lower courts ruled Austin lacked the authority to revoke the deal.
The two judges who agreed to toss the deal ruled Austin did have the authority to pull the deal because it had not been honored yet, and that the government "adequately explained that Secretary Austin delayed action to avoid an unlawful influence challenge, waiting to see what type of agreement, if any, would result from the negotiations and only then deciding whether intervention was necessary.
"Having properly assumed the convening authority, the Secretary determined that the families and the American public deserve the opportunity to see military commission trials carried out," the judges continued. "The Secretary acted within the bounds of his legal authority, and we decline to second-guess his judgment."
The lone dissenter, Judge Robert Wilkins, argued that the ruling was an overreach and that the government failed to prove it is "indisputably entitled to relief," according to Fox News.
Prosecutors allege that Mohammed, in 1996, presented the terror attack idea to 9/11 orchestrator Osama bin Laden of hijacking the planes and flying them into the Twin Towers in New York City and other sites on U.S. soil on Sept. 11, 2001.
Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.
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