IC Oversight & Policy — 2026-09-08

Nearly 25 Years After 9/11 Trial Still Has Not Started as CIA Enhanced Interrogation Program Renders Confessions Inadmissible

BLUFExclusion of Mohammed's confessions guts the prosecution's strongest direct evidence and makes the June 5, 2028 trial date very unlikely to hold given unresolved co-defendant motions and decades of procedural drag.

Military judge Lt. Col. Michael Schrama ruled on Friday, August 28, that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's 2007 confessions to FBI agents at Guantánamo Bay were involuntary and inadmissible at his death-penalty trial for the September 11 attacks, citing an "unbroken continuation" of CIA psychological coercion and the FBI's failure to clearly inform him of his rights 1. The ruling followed the same judge's decision the prior week setting a trial date of June 5, 2028 1. Chief prosecutor Rear Adm. Aaron C. Rugh said his team would review the ruling before deciding whether to appeal 1, and on Friday, September 4, prosecutors informed victims' families they would not appeal, stating an appeal "could jeopardize" the 2028 trial date 2. Schrama has not yet ruled on suppression motions for co-defendants Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, while a separate judge previously excluded the confession of co-defendant Ammar al-Baluchi 1.

Analysis
Prosecutors must now build the death-penalty case against Mohammed without their central piece of direct evidence, relying on circumstantial and derivative proof. Their decision not to appeal, a break from the pattern in parallel commission cases, may instead signal confidence they can convict on remaining evidence rather than resignation to a weakened one. The June 5, 2028 trial date is very unlikely to hold: unresolved suppression motions for co-defendants bin Attash and al-Hawsawi, unresolved plea-deal litigation, and two decades of accumulated delay all point toward further slippage. This assessment carries low confidence, reflecting reliance on a single primary account of an unreleased 45-page ruling with no visibility into how the pending co-defendant motions resolve. Pentagon budget planners and congressional overseers either keep funding the commission toward 2028 or must prepare to reallocate for extended pretrial litigation and prolonged detention costs if further delay materializes.

3 sources

Judge excludes key confession in Sept. 11 case - The Philadelphia Inquirer (AP)
Prosecutors drop Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confession appeal to protect 2028 trial for alleged 9/11 mastermind - Fox News
Nearly 25 years later, the 9/11 case still has not gone to trial - Responsible Statecraft