House Republicans are opening an investigation into President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris‘ role in the controversial plea deal offered to three of the 9/11 masterminds.
On Wednesday three of the five men who allegedly played pivotal roles in the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001 reached an agreement that would see them detained for life but avoid the death penalty.
The White House said it had no role in the pre-trial agreements and just learned of the deal as it was made public.
‘That White House officials and you, as President and Commander in Chief, would seek to distance your Administration from this decision is understandable given how absurd it is, but it is far from believable or appropriate,’ Oversight Chairman James Comer wrote in a letter to Biden.
Lead 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a photo dated 2009
Comer, R-Ky., said his committee was also concerned about the ‘lack of transparency’ around the deal given that much of it has not yet been disclosed.
Comer demanded a complete copy of the plea deal, all documents between the White House and Defense Department related to it and all discussions of avoiding the death penalty by August 16.
Sixteen years after prosecution began, the three men will be able to avoid the death penalty in a plea deal reached with military prosecutors.
Top mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and two co-conspirators Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi reached the deal after 27 months of negotiations with prosecutors and it was approved on Wednesday by a senior Pentagon official.
Their sentencing will not occur before summer 2025.
Two of the five defendants were not included in the deal. One, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, was deemed not fit for trial due to mental illness. Another, Ammar al-Baluchi, could stand trial alone.
The men have been in custody without convictions since 2003 but the case was bogged down in pretrial proceedings over whether evidence obtained by their torture in secret C.I.A. prisons would be admissible in court.
Five terrorists allegedly involved in 9/11 remain detained at Guantanamo Bay without convictions
The White House said it had no role in the pre-trial agreements and just learned of the deal as it was made public
Last year Biden rejected a deal that would have spared all five suspects from the death penalty, according to a New York Times report.
The prisoners had proposed a deal that would guarantee they would not serve solitary confinement, that they would be allowed to eat and pray with other prisoners, as they do now at Guantanamo.
They also wanted guarantees of a civilian-run program to treat sleep disorders, brain injuries, gastrointestinal damage and other injuries they say they’ve sustained from U.S. torture.
Back in 2009 then-Attorney General Holder tried to put Mohammed and four others on trial in a federal court in Manhattan and promised to seek the death penalty. But bringing the terrorists onto U.S. soil drew opposition from Republicans and some Democrats.
So instead of the federal court system, the case went through the military commissions process.
It is yet unclear where the terrorists will serve their sentences. Joe Biden has been wanting to close Guantanamo Bay, where they are detained, since he came into office.
If the detention facility on the military base, known as Camp Delta, is shut down, the detainees could be moved to ADX Florence in Colorado, the only supermax prison in the U.S. that already houses 9/11 terrorists.
