Supreme Court backs Pentagon decision to throw out plea deals for 9/11 alleged conspirators

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. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh MohammedIn 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.The practical effect of todays denials of certiorari is to clear the way for the inexorable pre-trial proceedings in these cases to continue, said Steve Vladeck, CNN legal analyst and professor at Georgetown University Law Center, who filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the justices to take up the appeals.It would be one thing if a trial were reasonably likely in the near future, but even the current summer 2028 trial date is entirely unrealistic given how many issues remain to be resolved.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. The agreements required that the accused plead guilty to all charges against them and undergo a public sentencing hearing in which they would be required to answer questions by family members and survivors of the September 11, 2001, attack.Austin abruptly revoked those agreements two years ago, asserting that such a significant decision should rest with me.The Trump administration has continued to defendAustins decision to revoke the deals.RELATED STORY | Bob Beckw…