Supreme Court leaves Pentagon’s 9/11 plea deal cancellations intact

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to review former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s decision to cancel plea agreements with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants accused of plotting the 9/11 terror attack. By denying the appeals, the high court left in place a decision from an appeals court last year that found Austin, who worked for former President Joe Biden, indisputably had authority to cancel the agreements, which had taken the death penalty off the table for the three alleged conspirators.

The decision puts the case back in the hands of military courts that have for years struggled to set a trial. The agreements had prompted a backlash from some groups representing 9/11 victims and their families. In separate appeals, Mohammed, Mustafa al Hawsawi, and Walid Bin Attash argued that the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overstepped its authority by siding with the government in the case.

Trials against Mohammed and the others have been delayed for years as multiple presidential administrations have tried to determine how to handle the issue of the torture of individuals at CIA prisons, and the question of whether evidence obtained through torture was admissible in court. The pretrial agreements were announced in 2024 after more than two years of negotiation. Austin abruptly revoked those agreements two years ago, asserting that such a significant decision should rest with him. The Trump administration has continued to defend Austin’s decision to revoke the deals.

Read the full story at Scripps News.