Attorney General Loretta Lynch is emerging as an opponent to the Obama administration’s latest efforts to empty and close U.S. detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay.
The administration has been pushing a plan that would allow the remaining detainees to plead guilty to terrorism charges by videoconference, after which they would be transferred from Guantanamo to a third-country prison, according to Reuters.
According to White House officials, this could lower the total amount of Guantanamo Bay detainees from 80 to anywhere between 10 and 20 people.
Lynch, however, has refused to back the proposal, and claims it violates the rules of the criminal justice system.
In her dissent, Lynch argued that video pleas are technically considered an involuntary plea, as detainees are not given the option of facing a trial by jury. According to Lynch, this would violate laws of the justice procedure, because the only other option the prisoners have besides pleading guilty is to remain in Guantanamo.
Lynch’s opposition has reportedly caused some friction between the White House and the Department of Justice, with one senior administration official saying “it’s been a fierce interagency tussle.”
Lynch has already blocked the proposal twice in the last three months. Her first dissent came after months of White House-led interagency negotiations. Lynch intervened in the final stages, effectively killing the proposal before it was even submitted to Congress.
The second time, Lynch blocked the administration from supporting a Senate proposal to legalize videoconference pleas that was inserted into the annual defense-spending bill.
