Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was surprised by news of a deal struck between prosecutors and the mastermind and two others who planned the Sept. 11 attacks. 

“This is not something that the secretary was consulted on,” Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters during a Monday briefing. “We were not aware that the prosecution or defense would enter the terms of the plea agreement.”

The Biden administration revoked the deal amid public outrage and anger from loved ones of the victims. 

PHILADELPHIA MAYOR’S SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEO SPARKS SPECULATION OF LEAKED KAMALA HARRIS RUNNING MATE

“He believes that the families and the American public deserve the opportunity to see military commission trials carried out in this case,” said Singh.

Austin revoked the agreement last week after prosecutors agreed to move forward with the deal that would have taken the death penalty off the table for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, and collaborators Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi. 

The defendants are being held at a military installation in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. 

“Effective immediately, in the exercise of my authority, I hereby withdraw from the three pretrial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024,” a letter from Austin states. 

That decision was made by retired brigadier general and senior Defense Department official Susan Escallier, whom Austin had tapped to serve in the Office of Military Commissions (OMC), the New York Post reported.

LAWMAKERS, FAMILIES OF 9/11 VICTIMS REACT TO PLEA DEAL WITH TERRORISTS: ‘SLAP IN THE FACE’

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a suspected al-Qaeda terrorist, is shown in this photo released by the FBI October 10, 2001, in Washington, D.C. Mohammed was arrested at a house in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. It was reported October 21, 2003, that U.S. officials believe Mohammed killed Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan.  (Getty Images)

No explanation was given on why this was not settled earlier before the deals were signed off and publicly released.

The deal shocked the loved ones of the 9/11 victims as well as lawmakers who blamed Biden for going easy on the terrorists. 

“They’re the ones that want this off of their plate. It’s an election year,” Terry Strada, the national chair of 9/11 Families United, told Fox News Digital. “They (terrorists) committed this heinous crime against the United States. They should have faced the charges, faced the trial and faced the punishment. Since when do the people responsible for murder get to call the shots?”

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the Biden administration did not play a role in the now-dead plea bargain.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 1. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

“This is not something that we were involved in,” Jean-Pierre told reporters last week. 

“We had no role in that process. The president had no role. The vice president had no role. I had no role. The White House had no role,” Sullivan said in a Thursday press briefing. “And we were informed yesterday — the same day that they went out publicly — that this pretrial agreement had been accepted by the convening authority.”

When it comes to disaster movies, my biggest pet peeve is the sex scene. As soon as a Diane Warren song starts playing in the background, the male and female leads will lock eyes and suddenly decide they have time to cuddle. “Saving the planet” loses all sense of urgency.

That’s what it feels like watching Republicans today refuse to endorse Kamala Harris because of the optics. They can see as well as anyone else that former President Trump is a threat to democracy. He says it openly. But apparently when members of the GOP look at their chances of holding on to power, the romantic music in their heads just sweeps them away.

Take Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. If anyone knows how far Trump will go to grab power, it’s him. Trump has been harassing him ever since losing the state to President Biden by 11,779 votes back in 2020. We heard Trump’s phone call with Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. We saw the indictment (though whether the Fulton County district attorney can continue to prosecute it remains in limbo). Trump’s allies tried to use fake electors to pretend he won the state.

Kemp followed the law and common sense and certified the real electors, which gave Biden the state’s 16 electoral votes.

We’re still hearing about Trump’s grudge, most recently in a long rant at a campaign stop in Georgia.

“He’s a bad guy. He’s a disloyal guy. And he’s a very average governor,” Trump said on Saturday about Kemp, who has a 63% approval rating in his state — and whom Trump endorsed for governor in 2018.

If anyone knows of the danger that Trump represents, it’s Kemp. And yet the governor responded to that latest barrage with a social media post supporting Trump’s campaign: “my focus is on winning this November and saving our country from Kamala Harris and the Democrats — not engaging in the petty personal insults, attacking fellow Republicans, or dwelling on the past.”

That’s how he characterized Trump’s attempt to overturn the election. Dwelling on the past. His wife, Marty Kemp, is so worried about what Trump would do if he regained power that she said she is going to write in her husband’s name for president instead of voting for Trump. Oh, great. Such bravery.

Kemp is expected to run for Senate, so perhaps what we’re seeing is that his political future matters more to him than the country’s future does. He wouldn’t want to be seen endorsing a Democrat, even when the alternative is a felon whom Kemp has personally seen attempting to overthrow American democracy.

The public spat between Kemp and Trump prompted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to beg the two to work things out. As if there’s some sort of acceptable middle ground between democracy and a failed coup d’etat.

The political maneuverings from folks who used to say “never Trump” — such as Graham and Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio — would not be possible without a healthy dose of cowardice.

Harris, like most politicians, will have to answer for positions she has taken in the past and may no longer support. But one stance she hasn’t changed is on the importance of protecting a free and fair election. On the day of the Jan. 6 attack, Harris’ motorcade came within 20 feet of the pipe bomb planted the day before outside the Democratic National Committee’s office. Authorities still don’t know who placed that one or the similar device found at the Republican National Committee’s headquarters.

We are not in ordinary times. Many conservatives know this firsthand. And yet despite understanding the urgency that the moment calls for, they continue to make time to play politics, like the romantic leads in a doomsday flick. At least most of them do.

This week a new group launched, called Republicans for Harris. It’s an effort to make it OK for conservatives to do all that they can to stop someone who tried to overturn the election from having another crack at becoming king. Among the most important strategies, of course, is voting for Trump’s opponent. Many Americans who tend to vote Republican will be reluctant.

The Kemps of the world aren’t helping, but consider the record of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah). He has waffled at moments but mostly seems to have seen Trump for what he is and been bold enough to say so.

During the primary in 2016, Romney recorded robocalls in support of Marco Rubio and John Kasich, encouraging voters to vote for “a candidate who can defeat Hillary Clinton and who can make us proud.” After Chris Christie endorsed Trump, Romney reportedly wrote Christie him an email saying Trump is “unquestionably mentally unstable, and he is racist, bigoted, misogynistic, xenophobic, vulgar and prone to violence.”

In 2018, Romney accepted Trump’s endorsement for the Senate. But in 2021 he voted for impeachment. Outlining his reasoning in a statement, Romney said the former president “attempted to corrupt the election by pressuring the Secretary of State of Georgia to falsify the elections results in his state” and “incited the insurrection against Congress by using the power of his office.”

Romney and Christie are like many Republicans who knew the danger of Trump before he became president but chose party over country. Members of Republicans for Harris, and the half-dozen former Trump Cabinet members who refuse to endorse him, have decided not to make that mistake twice. Other politicians, such as Graham and Kemp, do not care what happens to democracy as long as their careers survive.

@LZGranderson

RON WYDEN, OREGON, CHAIRMAN
DEBBIE STABENOW, MICHIGAN
MARIA CANTWELL, WASHINGTON
ROBERT MENENDEZ, NEW JERSEY
THOMAS R. CARPER, DELAWARE
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, MARYLAND
SHERROD BROWN, OHIO
MICHAEL F. BENNET, COLORADO
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., PENNSYLVANIA
MARK R. WARNER, VIRGINIA
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, RHODE ISLAND
MAGGIE HASSAN, NEW HAMPSHIRE
CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, NEVADA
ELIZABETH WARREN, MASSACHUSETTS
MIKE CRAPO, IDAHO
CHUCK GRASSLEY, IOWA
JOHN CORNYN, TEXAS
JOHN THUNE, SOUTH DAKOTA
TIM SCOTT, SOUTH CAROLINA
BILL CASSIDY, LOUISIANA
JAMES LANKFORD, OKLAHOMA
STEVE DAINES, MONTANA
TODD YOUNG, INDIANA
JOHN BARRASSO, WYOMING
RON JOHNSON, WISCONSIN
THOM TILLIS, NORTH CAROLINA
MARSHA BLACKBURN, TENNESSEE
United States Senate
COMMITTEE ON FINANCE
WASHINGTON, DC 20510-6200
JOSHUA SHEINKMAN, STAFF DIRECTOR
GREGG RICHARD, REPUBLICAN STAFF DIRECTOR
August 5, 2024
Michael D. Bopp
Partner
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
1050 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036-5306
Dear Mr. Bopp,
Thank you for your February 29th letter on behalf of your client, Harlan Crow, replying to
requests for information related to the Senate Committee on Finance’s (“The Committee”) investigation
into the tax treatment of the use of Mr. Crow’s superyacht and private aircraft. Unfortunately, your
evasive response has only heightened my concerns that Mr. Crow and his associates were involved in a
scheme to avoid paying taxes by claiming business deductions on personal travel. In particular, your
response did not address the simple question of whether Mr. Crow claimed any tax deductions on
expenses related to yacht and private aircraft use by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas that you
have stated were for “personal hospitality”.
I am deeply concerned that Mr. Crow may have been showering a public official with extravagant
gifts, then writing off those gifts to lower his tax bill. This concern is only heightened by the Committee’s
recent discovery of additional undisclosed international travel on Mr. Crow’s private jet by Justice
Thomas. As I consider legislative solutions to curb potentially abusive deductions, I am offering you one
final opportunity to address the tax treatment of yacht and jet trips involving Justice Thomas. I am also
offering you the chance to substantiate that the holding company for your client’s yacht, Rochelle
Charter, was genuinely engaged in for profit yacht chartering activities and not merely an entity used to
write off the cost of the Crow family’s luxurious lifestyle.
I.
Refusal to clarify the tax treatment of yacht and private jet trips lavished on a public
official in the context of “personal hospitality”
As you are aware, your prior responses to the Committee state that all trips Justice Thomas took
on the Michaela Rose and private jets owned or chartered by Mr. Crow were in the context of “personal
hospitality”. Personal trips do not serve as a business purpose, which is required under tax laws to permit
costs associated with the trips to be tax deductible. On several occasions, I have asked directly how many
times Justice Thomas traveled aboard the Michaela Rose and private jets paid for by Mr. Crow, and
whether Mr. Crow deducted the costs of these particular trips on tax filings. These should not be difficult
questions to answer. The possibility that Mr. Crow may have lavished secret gifts on a sitting Supreme