Did President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris personally oversee the plea deal with accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants? No, that's not true: Both the U.S. National Security Adviser and the U.S. Office of Military Commissions stated that the White House was not involved in any way. There is no evidence that either the president or the vice president personally oversaw any plea deal with Mohammed and the others.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly Twitter, on July 31, 2024, under the on-screen title "BREAKING NEWS 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other reach plea deal." The caption read:
BREAKING REPORT: Harris and Biden offer PLEA DEALS to the terrorists who MASTERMINDED the 911 ATTACKS..
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Aug 1 15:22:01 2024 UTC)
The post provided no evidence to support its claim that Biden or Harris personally oversaw the plea agreement for the 9/11 defendants, which was announced by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) on July 31, 2024.
National Security Advisor
In a White House news conference a day later on August 1, 2024, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the Biden administration learned about the plea deal a short time before it was made public. Sullivan explained:
As we said last night, the White House received word that the Convening Authority had entered these pretrial agreements that had been negotiated by military prosecutors with KSM and some of the other 9/11 defendants, and we had no role in that process.
The president had no role. The vice president had no role. I had no role. The White House had no role.
And we were informed yesterday, the same day that they went out publicly, that this pretrial agreement had been accepted by the Convening Authority.
Office of Military Commissions - Convening Authority
The Office of the Convening Authority for Military Commissions at the DOD is responsible for the handling of cases like those of the 9/11 defendants. Military commissions are a type of military court established to prosecute individuals for illegal actions related to warfare.
In an August 1, 2024, email, Ronald Flesvig, public affairs director for the Office of Military Commissions - Convening Authority, told Lead Stories that the president and vice president had nothing to do with the plea deals. He said:
The Convening Authority [Susan Escallier], in her sole discretion, used her own independent judgment in entering into PTAs [pretrial agreements] with the defendants. The prosecution team conducts the negotiations for the government.
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Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving Joe Biden can be found here.
Other Lead Stories fact checks about Kamala Harris can be found here.
