The Supreme Court turned away appeals from alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two accomplices seeking to revive plea deals the Biden administration pulled, leaving death-penalty charges intact.
In an unsigned order issued on Monday, the high court rebuffed the effort by Mohammed, Mustafa al Hawsawi, and Walid bin 'Atash to force enforcement of 2024 pretrial agreements that military prosecutors had reached with them. CBS News reported that the government’s withdrawal of those deals remains in place. Justice Brett Kavanaugh did not take part in the court’s consideration of the appeal.
The ruling keeps the three men on a path toward a military commission trial at Guantanamo Bay rather than locked-in life sentences that would have taken the death penalty off the table. A judge has set a trial date of June 2028, provided the parties hit required deadlines and milestones.
Mohammed is the accused architect of the Sept. 11 attacks. He and the two alleged accomplices face charges before a military commission for their claimed roles in crafting and carrying out those attacks. Five of the crimes carry the death penalty.
Military lawyers began discussing plea agreements after retired Brigadier General Susan Escallier took over in 2023 as the Convening Authority, the official who oversees the military court at Guantanamo Bay. Agreements were reached in 2024 and approved by Escallier.
Under those deals, the defendants would have pleaded guilty to all charges tied to their alleged roles in the 9/11 terror attacks and served life sentences, avoiding capital punishment. Then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revoked the agreements shortly after they were announced.
A military judge ruled in November 2024 that Austin’s nullification was unlawful and that the agreements remained valid and enforceable. A military appeals court later said Austin could not rescind the deals because the defendants had already begun to perform one of the terms.
The Justice Department then asked the D.C. Circuit to step in and hold that Austin had validly withdrawn from the pretrial agreements. The D.C. Circuit sided with the government in a decision last year, finding that the defense secretary “indisputably” had the authority to withdraw.
"The Secretary acted within the bounds of his legal authority, and we decline to second-guess his judgment,"
the D.C. Circuit panel stated.
Mohammed and his co-defendants sought Supreme Court review of the lower-court path that blocked a military judge from enforcing the deals. The high court turned them away. The withdrawal stands.
The three men were captured in 2003. They were held at secret CIA prisons and subjected to what the government called “enhanced interrogation techniques” before being moved to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. Formal charges came in 2008.
More than twenty years after their capture, the case still has not reached a full trial on the merits. The June 2028 date now on the calendar depends on the parties meeting a series of deadlines. The death-penalty exposure that the plea deals would have erased remains part of the charging picture.
Austin’s decision to revoke the agreements, and the appellate courts’ refusal to second-guess that call, left the government free to pursue the original capital case rather than a bargained life sentence. The Supreme Court’s unsigned order closes the latest bid to restore the deals.
Victims’ families and the public have waited through CIA black sites, Guantanamo transfers, years of pretrial litigation, a short-lived plea package, and a cascade of rulings over whether the secretary could pull it back. The high court has now left that withdrawal undisturbed.
Accountability for the worst terrorist attack on American soil should not be bargained away lightly. The government’s case against the alleged mastermind and his co-defendants can still proceed with the full range of penalties the charges allow.
