The Defense Department stunningly backtracked on Friday on a plea deal that Pentagon prosecutors agreed to with three of the terrorists behind the September 11 terror attacks, Fox News reported.
The deal, which was announced just two days earlier, had taken the death penalty off of the table for the three, but was revoked by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a terse memo.
In his order, Austin relieved the official in charge of the military commission who had signed off on the original plea deals.
"Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pretrial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024," the letter from the Secretary of Defense reads.
No explanation was given on why this was not settled earlier before the deals were signed off and publicly released, according to Fox News.
The New York Times had reported on Wednesday that the man accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and two of his accomplices held at the Guantanamo prison had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges in exchange for a life sentence.
The deal for the guilty pleas by Mohammed, Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawasawi rather than a death penalty trial has been approved by a senior Pentagon official, the report said.
The Department of Defense later confirmed that prosecutors have agreed to plea agreements with the three, but did not disclose the terms and conditions of the plea deals.
All three men have been in custody since 2003. Mohammed is an Al-Qaeda terrorist accused by the US of being the principal architect of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He and four others were charged in 2012 with terrorism, hijacking aircraft, conspiracy, murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, and destruction of property in violation of the law of war.
On Thursday, after news of the widely criticized deals broke, the White House claimed that President Biden "played no role" in the process.
"The White House learned yesterday that the Convening Authority for Military Commissions entered into pretrial agreements, negotiated by military prosecutors, with KSM and other 9/11 defendants," a White House National Security Council spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "The President and the White House played no role in this process. The President has directed his team to consult as appropriate with officials and lawyers at the Department of Defense on this matter."