Reporter Presses Top Biden Admin Official On Controversial Plea Deal With Alleged 9/11 Mastermind

last month

During a White House press briefing on Thursday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was asked about the plea deal for 9/11 defendants including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the impact of the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Jake. Switching gears for a moment, I want to ask you about the plea deal that

00:07was breached with 9-11 suspects by military courts down in Guantanamo. Republicans are

00:14condemning this as showing weakness and calling it a sweetheart deal because it avoids a trial

00:21and the death penalty. I'm just wondering if the administration has any response to

00:25that.

00:26As we said last night, the White House received word that the convening authority had entered

00:32these pretrial agreements that had been negotiated by military prosecutors with KSM and some

00:38of the other 9-11 defendants. And we had no role in that process. The president had no

00:43role. The vice president had no role. I had no role. The White House had no role. And

00:48we were informed yesterday, the same day that they went out publicly, that this pretrial

00:54agreement had been accepted by the convening authority. What the president did upon learning

00:59of that was direct his team to consult as appropriate with officials and lawyers at

01:05the Department of Defense on this matter. Those consultations are ongoing and I have

01:09nothing more to add at this time.

01:11One more thing. On Iran, Israel, Hamas negotiations, now that the Hamas negotiator is dead, who

01:23is there to negotiate with and why, in your estimation, would Hamas continue towards

01:32negotiating a ceasefire deal when the negotiator was just killed by the people they're negotiating

01:38with?

01:39It is too soon to tell what the impact of his death will have on the negotiations, and

01:47so I'm not going to speculate on that, especially in light of the broader dynamics and set of

01:52events unfolding in the region right now. What I will say is this. The ceasefire and

01:57hostage deal is the pathway to ending this war. It is the pathway to getting all of the

02:01hostages home, including the American citizen hostages who are relentlessly focused on getting

02:06home, and we remain determined to get it done.

Reporter Presses Top Biden Admin Official On Controversial Plea Deal With Alleged 9/11 Mastermind

Category

Transcript

Recommended