Trump orders medals stripped from SEAL’s prosecutors
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump intervened again on behalf of a Navy SEAL who was charged but acquitted of war crimes in the death of a captured Islamic State fighter in Iraq, ordering the military to punish the prosecutors who tried the case in the first place.
Trump lashed out at the Navy for awarding commendations to prosecutors in the murder trial of former Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, and he publicly instructed Pentagon officials to strip them of the medals. His announcement was a remarkable rebuke by a president of his own Navy leadership.
“The Prosecutors who lost the case against SEAL Eddie Gallagher (who I released from solitary confinement so he could fight his case properly), were ridiculously given a Navy Achievement Medal,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Not only did they lose the case, they had difficulty with respect to information that may have been obtained from opposing lawyers and for giving immunity in a totally incompetent fashion.”
He added: “I have directed the Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer & Chief of Naval Operations John Richardson to immediately withdraw and rescind the awards. I am very happy for Eddie Gallagher and his family!”
Gallagher’s case had become a cause célèbre among Republican lawmakers and the conservative media, eventually drawing the attention of Trump, who spoke out on his behalf. In March, the president said that he would order that the chief be moved to less restrictive pretrial confinement in honor of his service to his country. Gallagher was turned in by members of his own SEAL platoon, who accused him of stabbing a captured and wounded teenage fighter repeatedly in the neck with a custom hunting knife in 2017. He was also charged with obstruction of justice for threatening to kill the SEALs who reported him.
In a court-martial this month, he was found not guilty of firstdegree murder in the death of the captive and was also acquitted of accusations that he had fired at unarmed civilians who posed no threat, including an old man and a schoolgirl. Gallagher denied the charges, and his defense team said his accusers resented his leadership style.
Gallagher was convicted of only a single charge, related to posing for photographs with the body of the teenage captive. He was sentenced to four months’ confinement and a reduction in rank, to special operator first class.
The prosecution was troubled long before the verdict. The lead prosecutor was removed from the case after being caught attaching tracking software to email messages sent to defense lawyers. Then another SEAL who was given immunity surprised prosecutors by testifying from the stand that he was the one who had killed the captive.
Nonetheless, the Navy hosted an award ceremony July 10 for four attorneys who worked on the case, as well as four legal support workers, all of whom were awarded Navy Achievement Medals, according to Task & Purpose, an online news site focused on the military and veterans. The San Diego-based Navy legal office, it reported, maintained that it was right to prosecute Gallagher.