A plea deal reached this week with the alleged mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, along with two of his alleged accomplices, has been retracted, the Pentagon announced Friday.
In a memo, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the “three pre-trial agreements” approved Thursday with Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi have been rescinded.
The memo was addressed to retired Brigadier Gen. Susan Escallier, the convening authority for military commissions who oversaw the pretrial deal. Austin wrote that he was withdrawing her “authority” in the case and reserving “such authority to myself.”
All three defendants were captured in 2003, but their cases have faced years of legal delays over whether the evidence extracted during their interrogations was admissible in court.
The New York Times reported Thursday that the deal includes guilty pleas on conspiracy charges in exchange for a life sentence rather than the death penalty.
Earlier Friday, the Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee announced it was launching an investigation into whether the White House was involved in the plea deal.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
