Biden administration asks court to block plea deals for alleged mastermind of 9/11 attacks

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has asked a federal appeals court to block a plea agreement for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-defendants in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It comes days before the accused 9/11 mastermind’s scheduled guilty plea in an agreement that would spare him the death penalty.

The appeal comes after the military judge at Guantanamo Bay and a military appeals panel rejected Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s effort to throw out the plea deal, saying he had no power to do so after the senior Pentagon official for Guantanamo approved it in July.