On Friday’s CNN broadcast of “The Source,” Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, responded to the cancellation of plea deals with three defendants accused of involvement in the September 11 terrorist attacks, including mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, saying he believes “in part due to the reaction” that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “used his authority to step in and make the decision to cancel it.”
host Kaitlan Collins asked.[W]How does it make you feel to hear that Chief Justice Austin has rescinded this plea agreement?”
Meeks responded, “Well, in my opinion, he apparently didn’t know. Even though he fired the person who had signed the contract, it wasn’t approved by him, and I think based on some of the reactions and so forth, he decided to use his authority to step in and cancel the contract. That was a surprise to me. It was a State Department reference to the Committee on Foreign Relations, not the military, which has jurisdiction over the Department of Defense, but it was a shock to me as well.”
Collins then asked Meeks if he supported rescinding the agreement, to which Meeks responded that he was against the death penalty because it was “too easy” for those who committed heinous acts, and that this is why those who commit heinous crimes often commit suicide, and that they should suffer life in prison.
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