Federal Appeals Court Upholds Austin's Authority to Revoke 9/11 Plea Deals
DC Circuit ruling affirms former Defense Secretary's power, reversing lower courts and preserving death penalty option for alleged plotters.
In a key decision today, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed that former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held indisputable authority to cancel plea agreements with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed—the alleged 9/11 mastermind—and co-defendants Mustafa al Hawsawi and Walid Bin ‘Attash. This overturns a military judge's ruling last year deeming the deals, which avoided the death penalty, as valid and enforceable despite Austin's revocation.
Court documents state: “The Secretary of Defense indisputably had legal authority to withdraw from the agreements; the plain and unambiguous text of the pretrial agreements shows that no performance of promises had begun.”
Austin acted promptly last summer, revoking the agreements just days after their announcement following 27 months of negotiations. The deals required guilty pleas to all charges, life sentences, and public hearings for victims' families to question the accused—but they sparked outrage from some 9/11 families and lawmakers who insisted on pursuing capital punishment for the attack that claimed nearly 3,000 lives.
By withdrawing the deals and stripping authority from Brig. Gen. Susan Escallier, the Guantanamo convening official, Austin asserted that such grave matters demanded his direct oversight. Defense teams decried the move as corrupt and untimely under military rules, claiming initial performance had begun. Military Judge Col. Matthew McCall agreed in November, upholding the agreements, with a military appeals court following suit in December.
The federal court's ruling vindicates Austin, finding no prior fulfillment of promises to block withdrawal, amid persistent delays in the Guantanamo trials tied to CIA torture revelations that taint evidence admissibility.
Wells Dixon, senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, lambasted the decision for ensuring "continued lack of justice and accountability" in military commissions. He labeled the Biden administration's effort to invalidate the plea deals—which promised lasting convictions and life terms—"inexplicable" and "a painful betrayal of the 9/11 victim family members," given decades of stalled litigation unlikely to yield a full trial.
Today's outcome keeps the death penalty in play if the defendants are convicted, though the cases remain mired in years of legal hurdles at Guantanamo Bay.
Source: Bloomberg