Ex-brass: Milley was out of line
‘Undercut’ Pres. Trump
A former top member of the US Army’s brass in the Trump administration says Gen. Mark Milley repeatedly overstepped his authority and undercut potential orders from the then-commander in chief.
The accusations came as a new book has claimed Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, huddled with other security officials to discuss his secret calls to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
E. Casey Wardynski, a former assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs, claimed Milley and then-Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. James McConville engaged in a “pattern of behavior” to thwart President Donald Trump.
“These kinds of behaviors and this willingness for military leaders to exceed their authorities . . . was not something that came to them on Jan. 8,” Wardynski told Fox News. “It was something that they had done for a while.”
According to the book “Peril,” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Milley, fearing Trump might spark a conflict, twice called his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng, to assure him that the United States would not attack China.
The first call was on Oct. 30, 2020. The second was on Jan. 8, two days after the riot at the US Capitol.
Wardynski also said there were “stunning” examples of top military officials acting beyond their authority around the time of unrest in Washington, DC, last summer.
“Gen. Milley, as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . . . ordered elements of the 82nd Airborne and the 10th Mountain Division to fly overnight to DC . . . . without consulting the Army chain of command . . . I know that for a fact,” said Wardynski, a Republican who is running for an Alabama congressional seat.
Wardynski also described Milley as acting like a “bully” in meetings in an effort to control the agenda, and claimed that the general and other military leaders had no “intention of supporting” Trump.
Trump has accused Milley of treason, but Milley has said the Li calls were a “routine” part of his responsibilities as the Joint Chiefs chairman.
Wardynski claimed McConville told him that he “would not be obeying any illegal orders from the president” as riots following the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis spread across the country in the summer of 2020.
“My interpretation of that was he was talking about any use of the Insurrection Act by the president,” Wardynski said.”
Trump had threatened to use the 1807 law, which allows a commander in chief to deploy military forces if governors are unable to stem violent unrest, but never did.