his Monday, Dec. 8, 2008 courtroom drawing by artist Janet Hamlin and reviewed by the U.S. military, shows Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, center, and co-defendant Walid Bin Attash, left, attending a pre-trial session at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. Mohammed is the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. His trial date has been postponed again and again. He remains at Guantanamo, indefinitely.
Janet Hamlin | Pool | AP
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday withdrew the controversial plea deal for the three men accused of planning the 9/11 attacks.
“Today, Secretary Austin signed a memo reserving for himself the specific authority to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused in the 9/11 military commission cases,” the Defense Department said in a press release. “In addition, as the superior convening authority, the Secretary has also withdrawn from the pre-trial agreements that were signed in those cases.”
Austin announced the move in a memo addressed to Susan Escallier, the convening authority for military commissions, who had worked to negotiate the deal.
“Effective immediately, I hereby withdraw your authority in the above-referenced case to enter into a pre-trial agreement and reserve such authority to myself,” Austin said in the letter, which removes Escallier from the case.
The defense secretary said that he made the determination “in light of the significance” of the decision to make a plea deal, adding that “responsibility for such a decision should rest with me.”
Officials said on Wednesday that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi had reached plea agreements. The three men were expected to plead guilty to lesser charges that would prevent them from receiving the death penalty, but the terms of the revoked deal remain unknown.
The plea deal had been negotiated among the accused men, their attorneys and Escallier. Officials previously said that the accused had been scheduled to appear at a hearing at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba next week.
Mohammed is accused of being a mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, which killed 2,977 people.
A White House National Security Council spokesperson declined to comment, referring NBC News to the Defense Department. The Defense Department declined to comment beyond the press release.
The plea deal was met with criticism from families of victims and members of Congress.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee said on Friday before Austin announced his decision that it would open an investigation into the White House’s role in the plea deal.
Similarly, Rep. Mike Rogers, the Alabama Republican who serves as the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a letter to Austin that he was “deeply shocked and angered by news” of a plea deal.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who served in the Obama administration, slammed the deal in a Thursday statement.
“The people responsible for structuring this awful deal did the best they could. They were dealt a bad hand by the political hacks and those who lost faith in our justice system,” Holder told NBC News.