House Republicans are launching an investigation into the roles of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the controversial settlement offered to three of the masterminds of the September 11 attacks.
On Wednesday, three of the five men accused of playing pivotal roles in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans reached a plea deal that allowed them to remain in prison for life but avoid the death penalty.
The White House said it played no role in the pre-trial arrangements and was not informed of the deal until it was made public.
“That White House officials and you, as President and Commander in Chief, would want to distance your administration from this decision is understandable given its absurdity, but it is far from credible or appropriate,” Supervisory Board Chairman James Comer wrote in a letter to Biden.
Head of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a 2009 photo
Comer (R-Kentucky) said his committee was also concerned about the “lack of transparency” surrounding the deal, as not much has been released about it.
Comer demanded a full copy of the settlement, all documents between the White House and the Defense Department related to it, and any discussions about avoiding the death penalty by August 16.
Sixteen years after the prosecution began, the three men have escaped the death penalty thanks to a plea agreement with military prosecutors.
The deal was reached by the mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and two accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, after 27 months of negotiations with prosecutors, and was approved by a senior Pentagon official on Wednesday.
Their sentencing will not take place before the summer of 2025.
Two of the five suspects were not included in the deal. One, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, was deemed unfit for trial due to a mental illness. Another, Ammar al-Baluchi, was allowed to stand trial alone.
The men have been held without conviction since 2003, but the case has stalled in a preliminary investigation over whether evidence they obtained through torture in secret CIA prisons is admissible in court.
Five terrorists suspected of being involved in 9/11 remain in Guantanamo Bay without trial
The White House said it played no role in the pre-trial agreements and only learned of the deal after it was made public.
Last year, Biden rejected a deal that would have spared all five defendants from the death penalty, a New York Times report.
The prisoners had proposed a deal that guaranteed they would not be held in solitary confinement, but would be allowed to eat and pray with other prisoners, as they do now in Guantanamo.
They also wanted guarantees for a civilian-run program to treat sleep disorders, brain injuries, gastrointestinal problems and other injuries they say they sustained from U.S. torture.
In 2009, then-Attorney General Holder tried to prosecute Mohammed and four others in a Manhattan federal court, vowing 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 still unclear where the terrorists will serve their sentences. Joe Biden has wanted to close Guantanamo Bay, where they are being held, since he took office.
If the detention facility at the military base, known as Camp Delta, is closed, the inmates could be transferred to ADX Florence in Colorado, the only supermax prison in the U.S. that already holds 9/11 terrorists.