The White House said it did not know about the deal with the defendants in the September 11 terrorist attack.

The White House was not aware until Wednesday that the three accused of the September 11 terrorist attack had made deals with the investigation in the United States, White House spokesman John Kirby said on Friday amid criticism from the families of the victims of the attack.

"It was organized by an independent military investigative body. The White House did not know about this, about this deal or about the processes leading up to it, until yesterday. The President has instructed his national security team to contact individuals and leaders at the Department of Defense to further discuss this issue," Kirby said in an interview with Fox News.

The US Department of Defense on Wednesday sent letters to the families of the victims of the terrorist attack, from which it follows that the families in 2022 were notified of the start of negotiations on the defendants' deal with the investigation. The text of the letter was published by the American media.

According to the letter, the three defendants agreed to plead guilty in exchange for life imprisonment instead of the death sentence. The military judge has yet to sentence them, the first hearing is expected next summer.

In accordance with the concluded deal, the families of the victims can ask their questions to the defendants until September 14, which the latter must answer within 90 days. Relatives of the victims have already publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with the deal. The Pentagon limited itself to confirming the fact of the deal yesterday, but did not officially disclose its terms.

The media note that the United States has been in pre-trial proceedings with the accused since 2008 and did not bring the case to a court hearing due to the fact that the man's accusatory testimony was given as a result of torture in Guantanamo prison. Thus, if the military prosecutors had not made a deal with the defendants, they would have had to bring the case to trial without key evidence.

The defendants — Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, Walid Mohammed Sali Mubarak and Mustafa Ahmed Adam — are suspected of assisting the terrorists who staged the attack on the twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001.