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Leaders in the Republican Party harshly criticized the Pentagon’s decision to agree to plea deals for the ‘terrorists’ behind the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, believing the death penalty should have remained on the table.
On Wednesday evening, news of the plea deals erupted after the Department of Defense informed the families of victims in a letter that they had come to an agreement with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi. For 27 months, U.S. prosecutors negotiated with the three men, attempting to conclude the decades-long proceedings in the trial holding them responsible for aiding in the terrorist attack. Now, the three have agreed to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Senator Lindsey Graham and other members of the GOP blamed the Biden administration, calling it a “cowardice” move.
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s weakness in the face of sworn enemies of the American people apparently knows no bounds,” McConnell said in a press release.
“The plea deal with terrorists – including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks that killed thousands of Americans – is a revolting abdication of the government’s responsibility to defend America and provide justice,” McConnell added.
U.S. officials say Mohammed was the mastermind behind the attack that saw members of al-Qaida hijack four commercial planes, flying two into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. The fourth was intended to go to Washington D.C. but passengers and crew stormed the cockpit, crashing the plane into a field in Pennsylvania.
Mohammed was first captured in 2003. He was subjected to torture while in CIA custody that ultimately jeopardized prosecutors’s chance to try the case.
Johnson called the plea deal a “slap in the face” to the families of victims, similarly placing blame on the Biden-Harris administration.
New York Representative Nicole Malliotakis similarly called the plea deal “unacceptable” believing the families of victims and survivors were owed a trial with the death penalty.
“Under Biden-Harris, we have become a doormat for thugs and terrorists. This plea deal is an insult to the victims of 9/11,” Graham said on X. “It sends precisely the wrong message at one of the most critical times in history.”
“This decision is an outrage, shortsighted, and will only cause more problems for our country,” Graham added.”
Negotiations over the potential plea reportedly began in 2022.
Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton blamed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of “setting the stage to let them go free” and said he would introduce legislation to “stop the travesty.”
The White House learned of the plea deal agreement on Wednesday. The president did not play a role in the negotiations.
Last year, Biden rejected part of a potential plea deal for the defendants after they requested to be spared solitary confinement and receive trauma care, the National Security Council said at the time.
It is unclear what the exact terms of the plea deal are but the three men could enter their guilty pleas as early as next week.
