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The Justice Department, on behalf of the Pentagon, asked an appeals court on Tuesday to block a effort to enforce plea agreements arrived with four accused conspirators in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The request was filed in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals by Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys Matthew Olsen, Assistant Attorney General for Homeland Security, and Brian Fletcher, Senior Assistant Attorney General.
They sought to block a military commission appeals court decision that rejected Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s decision. effort to reverse the agreements of the statement.
The case concerns Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and two of his accused conspirators, Walid Bin ‘Attash and Mustafa al Hawsawi, who each reached a plea deal for life in prison at the end of July.
Austin revoked the declaration agreements in early August, but a military judge ruled he had no authority to revoke the agreement already at the highest judicial authority in Guantánamo Bay, the Cuban facility where the men are detained.
A military appeals court ruled against Austin again in late December.
But in Tuesday’s legal filing, Olsen and Fletcher argued that Austin “had clear and undisputed authority to reserve decisions related to the pretrial settlement.”
“The Secretary has the primary legal and regulatory authority over the military commission process,” they wrote.
DOJ attorneys also rejected the contention that the settlements cannot be revoked because the defendants were already carrying out the agreements reached, arguing that “the Secretary of Defense lawfully withdrew from the pretrial settlements before the defendants had began to fulfill any of the promises contained in the agreements”.
