Shreveport Reporter

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said the Biden-Harris administration agreeing to a plea deal with the people who planned the 9/11 attacks is "a slap in the face" to the families who had loved ones killed in the attacks. 

"The Biden-Harris Administration has done the unthinkable: they’ve agreed to a plea deal with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11th attacks, and two of his accomplices," Johnson wrote in a post on X. "23 years ago, America watched in horror as thousands of innocent Americans 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 said. "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."

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the main architect of the attacks committed on September 11, 2001, along with two of his co-conspirators, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, have been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2003. They recently entered a plea deal, which would remove the death penalty as a possible punishment for all three men pleading guilty on all charges, including murder charges for the 2,976 people recorded.

Rear Adm. Aaron C. Rugh, chief prosecutor for the Office of Military Commissions (OMC), confirmed they had undergone pre-trial agreements for the plea deal. The three men involved in the terrorist attacks have agreed to respond to questions about their involvement from families of the deceased, with the OMC giving family members instructions on how to submit questions over the next ninety days. 

, who has been inundated with calls from officers’ families after they learned of the plea deal, said it was “heartbreaking and infuriating.”

“Their loved ones’ sacrifice is being disrespected, and they are being victimized all over again," Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said on family members who are upset over the plea deal being made. "These individuals masterminded an attack on our nation that not only claimed 2,977 lives that day, but thousands more in the years since."

Mike Johnson is currently serving in the U.S. Congress, representing Louisiana’s 4th district. He replaced previous U.S Congress member John Fleming in 2017. He was chosen to be the 56th speaker of the United States House of Representatives in October of 2023. 

Johnson graduated from Louisiana State University in 1995 with a BA. He also earned a JD from Louisiana State University in 1998. He was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1972, and currently lives in Benton.