First appeared on FOX: House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., told Fox News Digital that his committee will continue to investigate scrapped plea deals with terrorists allegedly behind the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday surprisingly withdrew from controversial plea deals that reportedly would have vacated the death sentences of 9/11 terrorist masterminds Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Saleh Mubarak bin Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam Al Hawsawi, who are awaiting trial in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The announcement came after Republican members of the House Armed Services and Oversight committees launched separate investigations into the circumstances of the plea deals.
“I am grateful that Attorney Austin listened to my concerns and reversed this terrible decision,” Rogers told Fox News Digital on Saturday, “but this plea agreement should never have been made, and I hope the Attorney General will explain to HASC why this happened.”
The chairman wrote to Austin on Thursday: Plea bargainThis includes “all documents and communications, including terms, covenants, agreements, side deals, or mutually developed, related, conditional or linked agreements with the parties that relate to the terms of the plea agreement.”
‘Murder Ring’: Key House Committee Launches Inquiry into ‘Unfair’ 9/11 Plea Deals
Rep. Mike Rogers, Republican of Alabama and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, March 29, 2023. The White House national security adviser met with China’s top diplomat on Friday as the two countries seek to ease tensions that have been rising in recent months, according to a person familiar with the matter. (Ting Sheng/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Republican chairman also called for the production of records of communications from the Biden administration related to the plea deal, calling it “unfair.”
“I, along with many in the nation and Congress, am deeply shocked and outraged by the news that plea agreements have been offered to the terrorist mastermind and his associates who planned the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and killed nearly 3,000 innocent people,” Rogers wrote in the letter, which was first obtained by Fox News Digital.
“Sadly, this news will come as a shock to many of the victims’ families.”
Rogers gave the Pentagon an Aug. 23 deadline to respond to his request.
Biden-Harris Administration Rescinds Plea Deal for 9/11 Terrorists
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers is demanding more information about the plea deals for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other 9/11 defendants. (Getty Images)
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but three family members of 9/11 victims were told they had been spared the death penalty by the Office of Military Commissions (OMC). New York Post report.
On September 11, 2001, the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history left nearly 3,000 people dead. Victims’ families, groups representing victims, and lawmakers expressed frustration and anger that those who planned the attacks may not face the full force of the law.
Reversal of plea deal for 9/11 terrorist draws praise, calls for justice from victims’ groups, Republicans
9/11 Memorial Lights on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. (Fox News Photo/Joshua Cummins)
However, the agreement was rescinded when Austin fired the heads of the military committee that had signed the agreement and took power for himself.
“I am exercising my authority to immediately revoke the three pretrial agreements signed on July 31, 2024,” the chief wrote in a brief memo on Friday.
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The defense secretary did not explain why he did not intervene before the plea agreement was signed and made public. The Pentagon declined to comment on Austin’s decision.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, announced a parallel investigation into the plea deal in a letter to President Biden on Friday. The committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Biden-Harris administration’s sudden change of policy.
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind and Stephanie Price contributed to this report.
