The family of one 9/11 victim accused the Biden administration of reversing course on plea deals for alleged 9/11 masterminds for political purposes after a military court judge ruled Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin cannot rescind the offers.
President of 9/11 Justice Brett Eagleson reacted to the news during "Fox & Friends Weekend," calling the situation a "horrific travesty" as families remain outraged over the fact the death penalty could be removed as punishment for the suspected perpetrators.
JUDGE RESTORES CONTROVERSIAL 9/11 TERRORIST PLEA DEALS INVOLVING KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMED: REPORT
Brett Eagleson: It was a politically motivated decision to rescind it. We think that they knew all along that there was no way to do it, but in the heat of the election, in the lead up to November, they were utterly called out on the carpet for a horrific decision. Look, I haven't heard from a single 9/11 family member that thinks this is a good idea, and the reality here is that everything about 9/11, everything about this 23-year national nightmare that we've had to contend with, has been a horrific travesty from the days after 9/11.
When the U.S. government worked with Saudi Arabia to cover up the Saudi Arabian role, to the time we sent 5,000 or 6,000 of our troops to be slaughtered in Iraq for no reason, to the very fact that Congress just denied the benefits for the first responders, now this… where we're getting these terrorist sweetheart cupcake deals. We've been kicked in the gut time and time again, and we're sick of it, and we are so hopeful that we finally have a president who's going to do the right thing here… One thing I want to point out is that on 9/11 this year, when VP Harris and Biden sat behind the red rope at the 9/11 World Trade Center Memorial, President Trump was… in a New York City firehouse. He was there with me, and I got a chance to talk to him.
And we said to him, ‘Mr. President, you were right in 2016 when you said it was Saudi Arabia that knocked down those towers.’ He said it on this very show on ‘Fox and Friends.’ We said, Mr. President, we had to get the information not from the U.S. government, about Saudi Arabia's role, we had to get it from the British government. We said, ‘Mr. President, the same people who tried to take you down in Russia, Russia, Russia, Bob Mueller and the deep state of this country are the same people who have blocked justice for us. They’re the same people that came up with these horrible plea deals, would you do something to help us?' And he committed to us that day in a New York City firehouse on 9/11 that if he were elected president, he was going to do the right thing. He said he could deal with Saudi Arabia, and he was going to bring us final justice and closure, and we're going to hold them to account on that. And we're very hopeful. This is a new start for America. We have a Republican-controlled Congress, we have a president in the office who puts America first. So, let's hope that he really, truly does that.
LOVED ONES OF 9/11 VICTIMS REACT TO TERROR DEFENDANT PLEA DEAL: 'LIFETIME OF PAIN AND SUFFERING'
Eagleson, who is the son of a 9/11 victim, was outraged by the decision, like many other family members, and is asking for more to be done. The plea deals would allow the three men accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks to plead guilty in exchange for being spared the death penalty.
The court opinion, which has not been formally published yet, said the plea deals reached by military prosecutors and defense attorneys were valid and enforceable, and that Austin exceeded his authority when he later tried to nullify them.
The Pentagon has the option of going next to the D.C. Circuit federal appeals court for emergency review, but the court docket did not show any filings as of Tuesday afternoon.
A hearing is scheduled next week at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Mohammad and two other defendants could plead guilty in separate hearings, with the death penalty removed as a possible punishment.
The plea deals in the long-running case against the terrorists were struck over the summer and approved by the top official of the Gitmo military commission.
Fox News' Bill Mears and Danielle Wallce contributed to this report.
