Amerika

The Pentagon will appeal a military judge’s ruling that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin did not have the power to throw out plea deals reached earlier this year in the long-stalled cases against the accused planners of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, intensifying an unusual standoff over a seminal terrorism case. In a letter dated Friday to the families of 9/11 victims, Rear Adm. Aaron Rugh, chief military commissions prosecutor, said the government would challenge the ruling days earlier by Air Force Col. Matthew McCall, which found that agreements finalized this summer, enabling three of the alleged plotters to admit guilt in exchange for being spared the death penalty, remained valid because Austin lacked the power to void them after the fact. Read more: https://wapo.st/4hE0U1h