Trump Abandons Idea of Sending Terrorism Suspect to Guantánamo<br />“It’s good that President Trump has realized that a prosecution of Saipov in federal court would be much faster<br />and less legally complicated than sending him to Guantánamo for possible trial before military commission,” said John B. Bellinger III, a top White House and State Department lawyer under President George W. Bush.<br />Defending the later-aborted decision to try Mr. Mohammed in civilian court rather than a military tribunal, Mr. Obama<br />said critics would not find it “offensive at all when he’s convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him.”<br />The impact of such comments is more pronounced in military justice cases since the president is the commander in chief of the judges and juries<br />that determine guilt or innocence and hand down sentences.<br />In response to questions from reporters, Mr. Trump on Wednesday had said he would be open to transferring Sayfullo Saipov, the immigrant from Uzbekistan charged with plowing a pickup truck into passers-by in Manhattan<br />and killing eight people, from the civilian justice system to the military system at Guantánamo.<br />A military judge in February called the comments “disturbing and disappointing,” but decided<br />that since they were made when Mr. Trump was a private citizen, not the president, they did not constitute undue command influence.<br />WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday backed off his threat to send the suspect in this week’s New York terrorist attack to the American military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but once again called for the man to be executed, a public intervention<br />that could come back to haunt prosecutors in any future trial.
