Republican lawmakers introduced a bill on Wednesday to block the Biden-Harris administration from moving forward with plea deals for 9/11 terrorists who have been held in custody for years at Guantanamo Bay.
In a Wednesday press release, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark) announced that he introduced the Justice for 9/11 Act in the U.S. Senate alongside Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) to “nullify any plea deals made between the U.S. government and the Guantanamo Bay inmates who planned the 9/11 attacks on September 11, 2001.”
The press release noted that the legislation was initially introduced by Cotton and McConnell last August but was introduced for a second time after a military judge recently ruled that the Biden-Harris administration’s plea deals with the 9/11 terrorists could move forward, which would remove the possibility of the terrorists facing the death penalty. The press release also noted that a similar bill would be introduced by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) in the House of Representatives.
“Giving a plea deal to the terrorist masterminds behind 9/11 is disgraceful and an insult to the victims of the attacks, as well at those who served to avenge them,” Cotton said. “These monsters should have faced justice decades ago; instead, Joe Biden has set the stage to let them go free. My bill will stop this travesty and prevent the Biden administration from replenishing the ranks of our terrorist enemies any further on his way out the door.”
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McConnell explained that in the aftermath of the “terrorist savagery” displayed on 9/11, the U.S. government is obligated to “deliver justice” for the victims of the terrorist attack. McConnell added, “However long it takes, those responsible for September 11 deserve nothing more, and the families of their victims deserve nothing less.”
Moran described the Pentagon appeals panel’s recent decision to affirm the Biden-Harris administration’s plea deals with 9/11 terrorists as “alarming” and warned that the administration is using its last days in power to “release some of the world’s most violent terrorists from Guantanamo Bay.” As a result, Moran called on Congress to pass legislation to block the plea deals.
Lawler also expressed outrage toward the Biden-Harris administration for offering plea deals to the 9/11 terrorists.
“For the Biden-Harris Administration to have offered a plea deal without the death penalty to the very people who planned the attacks that took the lives of almost 3,000 is a betrayal of our cops, firefighters, and 9/11 victims and their families,” the congressman stated. “The Justice for 9/11 Act will nullify this horrendous plea deal and prevent any future ones from being offered to those who perpetrated this heinous attack.”
