Military Judge Brings Back Plea Deals for Alleged 9/11 Mastermind and Accomplices
U.S. Air Force Col. Matthew McCall has determined that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin lacked clear authority to revoke plea agreements with three 9/11 defendants.
A military judge has reinstated a set of plea agreements for three defendants on trial for the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. This comes after Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin previously intervened to block the plea agreements.
The defendants face charges including conspiracy, attacking civilians, murder, hijacking, and terrorism in an attack that killed almost 3,000 people and injured many more on U.S. soil.
McCall stated, “Withdrawal authority belongs to the convening authority alone and is not subject to a limitation as the Secretary may prescribe. The Secretary of Defense did not purport to make himself the Convening Authority for this case.”
McCall further explained that once the defendants had started fulfilling the conditions of the pretrial agreement, the convening authority lost the right to withdraw from the deal.
It remains uncertain if the U.S. government will appeal McCall’s decision.
Efforts to push the 9/11 prosecutions forward have been met with delays and legal challenges over the years.
If the cases proceed to trial and sentencing, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is expected to face numerous challenges as the defendants appeal any death penalty sentences.
These appeals could involve concerns about the destruction of interrogation footage, the impact of torture claims on evidence admissibility, and whether Austin’s memo constituted undue interference in the prosecution.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
