Daughters of 9/11 Victims Press for Answers as Accused Mastermind’s Trial Remains in Limbo
Two women who lost their fathers on Sept. 11, 2001, are still waiting for the man accused of orchestrating the attacks to face a criminal trial. Instead of waiting in silence, they have turned that frustration into a public mission: demanding answers, accountability and a fuller reckoning for the families and a country still marked by that day.
Elizabeth Miller was 6 when her father, New York City firefighter Douglas Miller, died inside the burning World Trade Center. Jessica Trant was 19 when her father, bond salesman Daniel Trant, died on the 104th floor of the North Tower. He called Trant’s mother to say goodbye.
Friday marks 25 years since the Sept. 11 attacks. For Miller and Trant, the anniversary is not only a time of remembrance but a reminder of how unresolved the legal case remains.
“It’s a busy week. I think there’s an overwhelming sense of love that we’re being shown, but I’m also ready to retreat,” Miller told CBS Mornings on Thursday.
Miller and Trant became friends through a shared quest to hold Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind behind the attacks, accountable. They do not always agree on what accountability should look like, but they agree that the process has taken too long. Mohammed confessed to planning and executing the attacks while imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.
The new documentary Daughters of 9/11, airing Friday on CBS and Paramount+, follows their pursuit of information and closure. They were determined to find it for themselves, for other families who lost loved ones and for the American public.
“We had to share losing our loved one with the world, our grief with the world,” Trant said on CBS Mornings. “People forget that when the buildings go down, they’re not watching buildings; they are watching our loved ones being murdered. ... My grief turned into a responsibility when I was finally ready to deal with it. That responsibility was going to Guantanamo and it became my mission now.”
Frank Pellegrino, a former FBI special agent who spent years hunting Mohammed and later interrogated him face-to-face after his capture and transfer to Guantanamo, told CBS Mornings that Mohammed appeared arrogant and showed no remorse.
During a four-day interrogation, portions of which appear in the documentary, Mohammed confessed that he “was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z,” telling Pellegrino, “I did it.” Whether that confession can legally be used to prosecute him has been debated for years.
In August, a military court ruled the interrogation inadmissible in Mohammed’s upcoming criminal trial, which is slated to begin at Guantanamo in 2028. The court found that his confession could not be separated from the CIA torture he underwent after his 2003 capture.
Pellegrino said he still carries guilt over failing to catch Mohammed before Sept. 11. “I had five years to find him, and we didn’t,” he said, recalling moments when his team came close only to see Mohammed slip away. “It’s uncomfortable at times.”
Trant said Pellegrino should not feel guilty. “He was the only one looking for him, with his partner,” she said. “It’s a big world out there and I think he was one of the only people that was screaming from the rooftops who this guy was and nobody was really listening to him. Even after 9/11 happened, Frank was saying, ‘This is my guy.’”
She added: “And I think, I feel indebted to Frank, if anything, and I think it’s been a privilege doing this documentary with him, because I think that he has dedicated, even after 9/11, to us families. So I think he shouldn’t feel an ounce of guilt.”
The documentary also examines the legal processes and disputes that have kept Mohammed’s criminal trial from moving forward. He faces charges including conspiracy, terrorism, hijacking and murdering 2,976 people.
For Miller and Trant, the wait is not abstract. It is measured in birthdays, missed milestones and anniversaries. Their story reflects a broader tension that has defined the post-9/11 era: how to deliver justice in a case shaped by torture, national security and years of courtroom delay.
Daughters of 9/11 aired Friday, Sept. 11, on CBS and streamed on Paramount+.