Austin surprised by 9/11 plea deal

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was surprised by news of a deal between prosecutors and the mastermind and two others who planned the 9/11 attacks.

“The secretary was not consulted on this,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said at a news briefing Monday. “We were not aware that the prosecution or defense would accept the terms of the plea agreement.”

The Biden administration revoked the agreement amid public outrage and anger from victims’ relatives.

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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testifies before a Senate Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill. Austin revoked a plea deal between three terrorists who planned the 9/11 attacks and the government. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta/File)

“He believes that the families and the American public deserve the opportunity to see the military commission trials in this case,” Singh said.

Austin revoked the deal last week after prosecutors agreed to move forward with the deal that would have taken the death penalty off the table for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad and his associates Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi.

The defendants are being held at a military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

“Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements you signed on July 31, 2024,” Austin’s letter said.

The decision was made by Susan Escallier, a retired brigadier general and senior Defense Department official whom Austin had selected to serve in the Office of Military Commissions (OMC), the New York Post reported.

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Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a suspected al-Qaida terrorist, is seen in this photo released by the FBI on October 10, 2001, in Washington. Mohammed was arrested at a home in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. On October 21, 2003, U.S. officials reported that Mohammed had killed Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. (Getty Images)

No explanation was given as to why this issue was not resolved earlier, before the agreements were signed and made public.

The deal shocked relatives of 9/11 victims as well as lawmakers who criticized Biden for being soft on terrorists.

“They’re the ones who want to get rid of that responsibility. It’s an election year,” Terry Strada, national president of 9/11 Families United, told Fox News Digital. “They (the terrorists) committed this heinous crime against the United States. They should have been charged, tried and punished. Since when do people who are responsible for murder get to decide?”

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the Biden administration played no role in the now-defunct plea deal.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks to reporters from the White House podium

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, August 1. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

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“We were not involved in this matter,” Jean-Pierre told reporters last week.

“We played no role in this process. The president played no role. The vice president played no role. I played no role. The White House played no role,” Sullivan said at a news conference Thursday. “And we were informed yesterday — the same day they made their position public — that this pretrial agreement had been accepted by the convening authority.”