Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last week overrode the plea agreement for three 9/11 defendants to avoid pushback on Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign, retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Darin Gaub tells Newsmax.

Gaub, appearing on "Wake Up America Weekend," said that he's known Austin for more than 20 years, and he believes that his decision "all came down to politics" and how the agreement would reflect on Harris and President Joe Biden.

"He pulled this back to have it not be a cost in the election," said Gaub. "It's unfortunate right now that the decision was made purely based on the chance of it being a political football used by anybody else… knowing him as well as I do, the reasons were not because of anything but the political cost."

Austin Friday overrode a plea agreement that would have allowed accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two accused accomplices, Walid Bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, to be sentenced to life in prison rather than to death.