9/11 Mastermind Trial Set for 2028, Nearly 27 Years After Attacks
A military judge has scheduled the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three co-defendants for June 5, 2028, but a recent ruling barring FBI statements and years of legal delays leave families of 9/11 victims facing the possibility they may never see a verdict.
Families of 9/11 victims and first responders are confronting the possibility that they may never see a verdict in the case against the accused plotters, even after a military judge scheduled a trial date of June 5, 2028 — nearly 27 years after the attacks that killed almost 3,000 people.
The judge set the date for alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three co-defendants, but the schedule remains tentative and faces significant legal obstacles. A recent ruling barred prosecutors from using statements Mohammed made to FBI agents in 2007, finding that the statements were tainted by coercive treatment he experienced in U.S. custody. The government chose not to appeal the decision, saying an appeal could jeopardize the 2028 trial date.
The judge set the trial 18 months after the prosecution's proposed January 2027 start to give both sides time to work through a long list of unresolved legal disputes. He is the fifth military judge to oversee the case since the defendants were arraigned in 2012.
John Ryan, former chief of department with the Port Authority Police who spent nine months working on the recovery operation at Ground Zero, described the ongoing wait as a persistent wound. «It's like an open sore, and that sore gets even more hurtful when we get to anniversaries,» Ryan said. He lost 37 police officers he had worked with, along with civilian colleagues at the Port Authority.
Ryan, who later became a commander with the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force, said he expected the case to remain part of his professional life but not for this long. «Here we are 25 years later, and I'm still involved in this aspect of that here because we still have not convicted or taken to justice the five people that are being held at Guantánamo Bay,» he said. «The planners, KSM and the others that are in custody, are awaiting trial.»
Mohammed and three other defendants have been held by the U.S. for years without facing trial for their alleged roles in the plot. A fifth defendant, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, is being handled separately after being found mentally incompetent to stand trial.
The case has been moving through the military commissions since the defendants were arraigned in 2012. By then, Mohammed had already spent nearly a decade in U.S. custody. He was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and held for years at CIA «black sites,» where he was subjected to harsh interrogation techniques, including repeated waterboarding. Mohammed and the other defendants were transferred to Guantánamo in 2006.
The treatment of the defendants in CIA custody has become one of the central obstacles in the prosecution. Defense attorneys have argued that statements obtained after the defendants were tortured cannot be considered voluntary. Prosecutors have argued that later statements made to FBI agents by a «clean team» should be admissible. The recent ruling excluding Mohammed's 2007 FBI statements dealt another blow to that effort and highlighted a problem that has followed the case for years: whether prosecutors can separate evidence gathered later from the coercive interrogations that came before it.
The case has also been disrupted by changes in judges, the coronavirus pandemic and a failed plea agreement. In 2024, the defendants reached plea agreements that would have required them to plead guilty in exchange for life sentences rather than face the death penalty. Then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin withdrew the agreements, prompting another round of litigation.
For families who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, the years of delay have become another part of the trauma. Sean Passananti, whose father was killed on the 100th floor of the North Tower, said the passage of time has made the case feel increasingly detached from the scale of the crime. «It feels really like a twilight zone and unbelievable that we have to fight for justice for the worst terrorist attack that ever happened on our soil,» Passananti said. «It doesn't feel real. It's unexplainable.»
Passananti said he has attended the memorial ceremony every year but one since the attacks. «I wish I wasn't here, obviously, but I feel like I have to be here every year,» he said.
Dennis McGinley, whose older brother Danny worked on the 89th floor of the South Tower, said the delays have kept his family from closing a painful chapter. «President Trump has a unique, historic opportunity here to be a hero, be our champion, finally close the books on this American nightmare, which is now becoming an American embarrassment,» McGinley said. He described the families' grief as an injury that keeps reopening. «It is like the wound never healed, and every year we get salt poured back into that wound,» he said.
Ryan said the fact that the defendants have admitted their involvement makes the prolonged legal process particularly difficult. «The fact is that they've all admitted their involvement. It's not a question of guilt. It's just a question of the process and the fact that the process has taken 25 years,» he said.
