Pentagon asks court to block 9/11 plea deals

Mike Lawlermoderate New York Republican Representative

For the Biden-Harris administration to have offered a plea deal without the death penalty to the very people who planned the attacks that took the lives of almost 3,000 is a betrayal to our cops, firefighters and 9/11 victims and their families. The Justice for 9/11 Act will nullify this horrendous plea deal and prevent any future ones from being offered to those who perpetrated this heinous attack,

said Lawler

Mitch McConnellsenate Minority Leader

In the wake of terrorist savagery, our obligation is to deliver justice. However long it takes, those responsible for September 11th deserve nothing more,

said McConnell

Tom Cottonsenator

Those monsters should have faced justice decades ago; instead Joe Biden set the stage to let them go free,

said Cotton, R-Ark., in a statement

A short delay to allow this Court to weigh the merits of the government's request in this momentous case will not materially harm the respondents,

the government argued

JD Vanceelect

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris have weaponized the Department of Justice to go after their political opponents, but they’re cutting a sweetheart deal with 9/11 terrorists,

now-Vice President-elect JD Vance said at the time

Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pretrial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024,

a letter from Austin states

The military commission judge intends to enforce pretrial plea agreements that will deprive the government and the American people of a public trial as to the respondents’ guilt and the possibility of capital punishment, despite the fact that the Secretary of Defense has lawfully withdrawn those agreements,

the appeal read

Respondents are charged with perpetrating the most egregious criminal act on American soil in modern history—the 9/11 terrorist attacks."

In its appeal this week, the government says

The government and the public will lose the opportunity for a public trial as to the respondents’ guilt and to seek capital punishment against three men charged with a heinous act of mass murder that caused the death of thousands of people and shocked the nation and the world,

it continued

That ruling countermands the Secretary’s considered judgment about the appropriate handling of a case of unique national importance,

Brian Fletcher, principal deputy solicitor general, wrote