Graham: ‘Huge mistake’ for Trump not to declare NY suspect an enemy combatant

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Wednesday that it was a “huge mistake” for the Trump administration not to hold the suspect in the New York City truck attack as an enemy combatant.

“It appears the Trump Administration is continuing the Obama policy of criminalizing the War on Terror by not declaring Sayfullo Saipov an enemy combatant,” Graham said in a statement, referring to the 29 year-old suspect in the attack.

The South Carolina lawmaker said authorities will likely be unable to gather any additional information from Saipov “now that he’s lawyered up.”

“It’s ridiculous to believe that one day of interviews in a hospital tells us all we need to know about Saipov’s terrorist ties,” Graham said.

Graham’s statement comes after the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Joon Kim, announced that the suspect would be charged with providing material support to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Saipov allegedly perpetrated the attack “in the name of” ISIS, according to the New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, John Miller. 

Both Graham and his colleague and close friend, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), called for Saipov to be held as an enemy combatant following the attack.

“Plea bargaining is a bad way to gather intelligence — not required under the law of war,” Graham continued in his statement criticizing the move to prosecute Saipov rather than hold him in military custody. 

“Given the facts, any first-year law school student could obtain a conviction in court. I am more concerned about intelligence gathering to help win a war. That is a process which takes time – time which is now lost.”

Eight people were killed on Tuesday when a truck plowed into a bicycle lane in lower Manhattan.

President Trump said Wednesday that he would “consider” sending Saipov to the military prison located in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Saipov is also charged with violence and destruction of a motor vehicle with willful disregard for human life, Kim said.