Top House Republican launches review of 9/11 plea deals

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, sent a letter Friday to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin demanding answers about the 9/11 plea deals reached with three accused conspirators of the deadly attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Rogers wrote that the deal including life sentences for accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, along with two of his associates, had "deeply shocked" him and was a "gut punch to many of the victims’ families."

"It is unconscionable that the Biden-Harris Administration would allow such a plea deal," he wrote in the letter. "Your department allowed a plea deal with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his band of killers."

Rogers demanded all information about the plea agreement, including negotiations and side deals, along with communications in the Biden administration about the deal.

Mohammad, also known as KSM, is held at the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba. He and his alleged accomplices have been there since 2003 and have been charged twice in a military commission but have never reached trial. Two other 9/11 accused conspirators are held at Guantanamo Bay but did not reach a plea deal with the U.S. this week.

The post-9/11 U.S. military commission has struggled to reach convictions. The only person ever convicted of a charge related to the 9/11 attacks is Zacarias Moussaoui, who is often called the 20th hijacker. He was detained in August 2001 before the attacks.

Since the plea deals were announced Wednesday, Republicans have criticized the Biden administration, accusing them of letting terrorists off the hook. The families of the 9/11 victims have also expressed their concern.

In the letter Friday, Rogers said the plea deals "give hope to terrorists throughout the world that America is not willing to hold the worst of the worst accountable for their wicked crimes."

"In short," he said, "this deal signals willingness to negotiate with terrorists who deliberately harm Americans."