White House claims Biden 'played no role' in 9/11 mastermind's plea deal
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two others were reportedly spared the death penatly
By Michael Lee Fox News
Published August 1, 2024 2:27pm EDT
The White House said Thursday that President Biden "played no role" in the plea deal process for three of the masterminds behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
"The White House learned yesterday that the Convening Authority for Military Commissions entered into pretrial agreements, negotiated by military prosecutors, with KSM and other 9/11 defendants," a White House National Security Council spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "The President and the White House played no role in this process. The President has directed his team to consult as appropriate with officials and lawyers at the Department of Defense on this matter."
The statement comes after the Department of Defense announced Wednesday that prosecutors had reached a plea agreement with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two others, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin 'Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, for their role in masterminding the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The agreement would help bring a close to a yearslong process, with the case being stuck in pretrial proceedings in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, with no trial in sight over concerns about the admissibility of evidence that was obtained through the CIA’s enhanced interrogation of the three defendants, which critics have denounced as torture.
The terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but family members of 9/11 victims were told by the Office of Military Commissions that the suspects would be spared the death penalty as part of the deal, according to a report from the New York Post.
While Biden did not play a role in the deal that was ultimately reached, the president rejected a proposal last year that would have spared the three suspects from the death penalty.
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