Lawmakers, families of 9/11 victims react to plea deal with terrorists: 'Slap in the face'

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Reaction came swiftly after the news that three terrorists who masterminded the Sept. 11 terror attacks will be spared the ultimate punishment after striking a plea deal with prosecutors on Wednesday.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi were awaiting trial in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, when they came to an agreement with the Convening Authority for Military Commissions, Susan Escallier, the Department of Defense (DOD) said.

The three defendants are accused of providing training, financial support and other assistance to the 19 terrorists who hijacked passenger jets and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 11, 2001.

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A hijacked plane crashes into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. (Seth McAllister/AFP via Getty Images)

Upon hearing the news Wednesday, loved ones of the nearly 3,000 people killed during the attacks reacted with anger and disappointment.

"I am very disappointed. We waited patiently for a long time. I wanted the death penalty; the government has failed us," Daniel D’Allara, whose twin brother, John, was an NYPD officer killed in the attacks, told the New York Post. 

Pedestrians in Lower Manhattan watch smoke billow from New York's World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. The masterminds of the terror attacks entered into a plea deal with prosecutors on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)

"I feel like I was kicked in the balls," Jim Smith, a retired police officer and husband of Moira Smith, the only female NYPD officer who died on 9/11, told the Post. "The prosecution and families have waited for 23 years to have our day in court to put on the record what these animals did to our loved ones."

Brett Eagleson, who was 15 years old when his father, Bruce, died while working at the World Trade Center in New York City, told the Boston Herald that news of the plea deal was "sh---y timing.

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Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (FBI | Getty Images)

"It’s just another move to wrap up 9/11 and put it in a box and make it go away," he said. 

Meanwhile, lawmakers and other public officials blasted the Biden administration for the deal.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the plea deal a "disgrace" while blaming the Biden administration. 

"Anything short of their execution is a complete and total miscarriage of justice. Time and time again, this administration shows weakness to our adversaries," he wrote on X. 

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, former President Trump's running mate in this year's presidential election cycle, blasted the plea deal while addressing supporters at a campaign rally in Glendale, Arizona, on Wednesday night.

Firefighters are shown among the debris after the World Trade Center attack in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. (Courtesy of Frank Paplia)

"We need a president who kills terrorists, not negotiates with them," he told supporters. 

Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, said, "Their crime merits the ultimate punishment. There should be no plea deal and absolutely no leniency."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the three defendants have the blood of Americans on their hands. 

"Yet they were apparently allowed to plead guilty and avoid the death penalty, and potentially received a host of other conditions," Graham wrote on social media. "From the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan to broken borders and empowering Iran, the Biden-Harris Administration has been a dream team for terrorists and rogue states like Iran."

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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the deal was a "slap in the face" to the loved ones of those who died. 

"America mourned for weeks afterwards as first responders sifted through the ashes at Ground Zero, at the Pentagon, and at the crash site in Shanksville," he wrote. "For more than two decades, the families of those murdered by these terrorists have waited for justice. This plea deal is a slap in the face of those families. They deserved better from the Biden-Harris Administration."