STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Did Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin do something illegal when he rescinded plea deals in the September 11 terrorism case? A military court judge at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will consider that. A monthlong hearing starts today, and NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer is covering it. Good morning.
SACHA PFEIFFER, BYLINE: Hi in kind. Morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: OK. So what did Defense Secretary Austin supposedly do wrong?
PFEIFFER: This has to do with three men being held at Guantanamo who are charged in the 9/11 case, and that includes Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged ringleader. Those men agreed in late July to plead guilty to nearly 3,000 murders. That's for everyone killed on 9/11...
INSKEEP: Right.
PFEIFFER: ...And serve life in prison. In return, they would no longer continue to face a death penalty trial. But two days after those plea deals were announced, Austin reversed them. The legal issue is whether by reversing them he violated military law. Now, this case is widely considered hopelessly gridlocked and unlikely ever to get to trial, and it had looked like the agreements were finally going to end that case. But Austin claims he was caught off guard by the plea deals. He thinks victim family members deserve a trial, so he withdrew the settlement agreements. Guantanamo defense attorneys say those are legal contracts that must be enforced and that Austin cannot withdraw them.
INSKEEP: Oh, how interesting - legal contracts, they say. But Austin is the boss of the prosecutors who made the agreement. Did he have no authority to withdraw their consent?
PFEIFFER: So this is part of the debate. Now, yes, you're right. The defense secretary is at the top of that org chart, of that food chain. But the head of the military court is supposed to be independent and protected from any meddling from above. Guantanamo defense lawyers believe that when Austin reversed those plea deals, he had caved to political pressure because there were many 9/11 families and Republicans in Congress who blasted the deals as being soft on terrorists. There were even some Democrats worried that the settlement agreements would make the Biden administration and Harris campaign look bad. So some defense attorneys accused Austin of improperly meddling and influencing the outcome of a military legal proceeding, which he's not allowed to do.
INSKEEP: Unlawful command influence...
PFEIFFER: Correct.
INSKEEP: ...I guess, is the phrase.
PFEIFFER: That is the phrase.
INSKEEP: But you mentioned pleading guilty to 3,000 murders. There are thousands of family members of those victims. How do they feel about this?
PFEIFFER: Some of them are glad the plea deals are off the table because they want a trial. Others just want the case resolved, and they think settlement agreements are the only solution. I want you to hear something that a family member named Elizabeth Miller said to me. She was six when her dad died on 9/11. He was a Staten Island firefighter. She says that when Austin reversed the plea deals made by the head of the military court, he undermined that person, and that person is officially called the convening authority.
ELIZABETH MILLER: It's just off-putting. If the convening authority doesn't have the authority to make these decisions, was it just set up for them to be a figurehead? Like, let them do their job.
PFEIFFER: So, Steve, eventually, the judge in the 9/11 case - this is a man - will decide whether Austin was wrong. And that male judge will decide whether the woman who oversees the whole military court should just proceed with doing her job and go ahead with those plea deals.
INSKEEP: You just stopped me in my tracks when you said this was a 6-year-old when her dad was killed. It reminds me of the devastation of that day. And now she's a grown-up, which reminds me how long this has gone on.
PFEIFFER: Yes. Two decades have passed. And again, a trial looks like an impossibility, largely because the defendants were tortured. That arguably contaminates a lot of evidence. Now, Guantanamo defense lawyers and prosecutors say that settling the 9/11 case is the only way to make it end. That is extremely difficult for many victim family members and politicians to make peace with.
INSKEEP: NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer, thanks for your insights.
PFEIFFER: You're welcome, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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