Brett Eagleson -- the president of 9/11 Justice, an organization representing 9/11 survivors and relatives of victims -- tells TMZ ... the feds did not loop them in or consult them before the shocking pre-trial agreement, and he says it's upsetting for a number of reasons.
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00:00It feels like a betrayal to the 9-11 community.
00:04I've spoken with a lot of 9-11 family members.
00:07In fact, I was with 500 of them yesterday when this news broke in federal court in Manhattan
00:13where we're pursuing our case against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
00:17And what should have been a landmark day, which it was a landmark day for us rather,
00:20but what should have been a joyous day and a proud day for us has kind of morphed into
00:26this really uncomfortable, atypical day.
00:33What's been really uncomfortable and it's been quite upsetting to us is that the United
00:36States government, the White House, the DOD did not involve the 9-11 families in any way.
00:43In fact, we found out about this at the same time the American public found out about this.
00:48Maybe it was 30 seconds before they sent us like a mass email and then they went public
00:54with their statement.
00:56A few months ago when President Biden and the White House had raised this, because this
01:00is something that's been ongoing, they've been proposing plea deals for a while now.
01:04So it's not new to us, but it is a shock because when they did float this idea, we had weighed
01:10in very strongly against the idea of this.
01:13We had said to the White House and we were critical of it.
01:16We said, do not do this deal without consulting with the 9-11 family members.
01:20There could be crucial evidence that would help us in our pursuit against the Kingdom
01:24of Saudi Arabia.
01:25There could be other things that our family members want before you agree to sign the
01:29check for them.
01:30And before you agree to kind of give them their, for lack of a better term, get out
01:34of jail free card or get out of death free card, right?
01:37For us, it's not really about whether these individuals should get the death penalty or
01:41they should have life in prison.
01:44That's not up to me.
01:45And if you ask any member of our community, their opinions are going to be completely
01:49diverse on this issue.
01:50But the travesty here is what a plea deal does is it denies a trial.
01:56And we as Americans deserve our day in court.
01:59We deserve the right of justice.
02:01This country was founded upon the principles of democracy and justice.
02:05And what a plea deal does is it subverts the judicial system.
02:10It allows these individuals to take a deal without ever having to stand public trial.
02:14They don't have to answer questions.
02:17And they basically, everything that they did gets swept under the rug.
02:21But yet again, this is our government not respecting us.
02:25This is our government fighting back on us.
02:26And that's like the question is, why does the government hate our group so much?
02:30I mean, you know, they haven't done a single thing.
02:33And this is not a partisan issue.
02:36You know, the blame goes full circle here.
02:39From Bush to Obama, to Trump to Biden, every single successive administration has let us
02:45down. And they have not joined in our fight to hold the kingdom of Saudi Arabia accountable
02:49or to or to bring us truth.