WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin resigned on Friday controversial agreement for the three men charged with planning the 9/11 attacks.

“Today, Secretary Austin signed a memo reserving the specific authority to enter into plea agreements with those accused in the 9/11 military commission cases,” the Department of Defense said in a press release. “Furthermore, the secretary as the superior convening authority has also withdrawn from the pre-trial agreements signed in those cases.”

Austin announced the move in a memo addressed to Susan Escallier, the convening authority for military commissions, who had worked to negotiate the deal.

“Effective immediately, I hereby revoke your authority in the above-referenced case to enter into a plea agreement and reserve such authority,” Austin said in mailwhich removes Escallier from the case.

The Secretary of Defense, who appointed Escalier will serve as convening authority for military commissions in 2023, said he made the decision “in light of the significance” of the decision to settle, adding that “responsibility for such a decision should rest with me.”

officials said on Wednesday that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi reached agreements. The three men were expected to plead guilty to lesser charges that would prevent them from receiving the death penalty, but the terms of the withdrawn deal remain unknown.

The plea deal had been negotiated between the accused men, their lawyers and Escallier. Officials previously said the defendants were scheduled to appear at a hearing in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, next week.

Mohammed is accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks, which killed 2,977 people.

A spokesman for the White House National Security Council declined to comment and referred NBC News to the Defense Department. The Department of Defense declined to comment beyond the press release.

Congressional Republicans celebrated Austin’s decision to revoke the agreement.

Rope. Michael McCaul, who chairs the Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was “pleased to see” Austin’s move.

“As I said before, if any case warrants the death penalty, it’s this one,” the Texas Republican said in one post to X.

Late. Lindsey GrahamRS.C., said Austin “did the right thing.”

“The previous agreement would have sent completely the wrong signal to terrorists around the world,” Graham said. “I know the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks will appreciate this – as will I.”

The head of 9/11 Justice, a self-described grassroots movement of 9/11 victims’ families, expressed frustration that families were being left out of discussions about the proceedings against the suspects.

“We are surprised and deeply frustrated that our families were not consulted or even notified in advance of the settlement or its subsequent withdrawal,” said group president Brett Eagleson. “These monsters must be forced to share any information they have about the attacks and be held fully accountable for the murder of our loved ones.”

The plea deal had initially been met with criticism from victims’ families and members of Congress.

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee said on Friday before Austin announced its decision to open an investigation into the White House’s role in the settlement.

Similarly, rep. Mike Rogers, the Alabama Republican who serves as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a letter to Austin that he was “deeply shocked and upset by the news” of an agreement.

Speaker Mike Johnson linked the two GOP-led committees to Austin’s decision, said Friday night post to X that “The Biden-Harris administration is right to reverse course after receiving letters from @GOPoversight and @HASCRepublicans launching investigations into this terrible plea deal.”

Former Attorney General Eric Holderwho served in the Obama administration, slammed the deal in a statement Thursday.

“The people who were responsible for structuring this horrible deal did the best they could. They were dealt a bad hand by the political hacks and those who lost faith in our justice system,” Holder told NBC News.

Holder had said in 2009 that the accused men would be tried in federal court in Manhattan, where they could be sentenced to death. Although that plan did not materialize according to congressmen blocked the transfer of all detainees from Guantánamo Bay in Cuba to the United States, the slow pace of defendants’ progress through the military commission system—a form of military court administered by the Department of Defense—resulted in some unlikely support for a federal trial. Former Attorney General William Barr, who served in the administrations of former Presidents Donald Trump and George HW Bush, called the military commissions a “hopeless mess” and said the government would “probably succeed in getting a conviction” in federal court.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com