Trump pardons Army officers, restores Navy SEAL's rank in war crimes cases

[rooster59 9,686]

Trump pardons Army officers, restores Navy SEAL's rank in war crimes cases

By Idrees Ali

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Navy SEAL Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher prepares to answer a question from the media with wife Andrea Gallagher after being acquitted on most of the serious charges against him during his court-martial trial at Naval Base San Diego in San Diego, California, U.S., July 2, 2019. REUTERS/John Gastaldo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned two Army officers accused of war crimes in Afghanistan and restored the rank of a Navy SEAL platoon commander who was demoted for actions in Iraq, a move critics have said would undermine military justice and send a message that battlefield atrocities will be tolerated.

 

The White House said in a statement Trump granted full pardons to First Lieutenant Clint Lorance and Major Mathew Golsteyn, and ordered that the rank Edward Gallagher held before he was convicted in a military trial this year be restored.

 

"For more than two hundred years, presidents have used their authority to offer second chances to deserving individuals, including those in uniform who have served our country. These actions are in keeping with this long history," the statement said.

 

A Pentagon spokesperson said the Department of Defense has confidence in the military justice system.

 

"The President is part of the military justice system as the Commander-in-Chief and has the authority to weigh in on matters of this nature," the spokesperson said.

 

In recent weeks, Pentagon officials had spoken with Trump about the cases, provided facts and emphasized the due process built into the military justice system.

 

In 2013, prosecutors accused Lorance of illegally ordering the fatal shootings of two men on motorcycles while on patrol in Afghanistan's Kandahar province. He was found guilty of two counts of murder.

 

Last year, Golsteyn, an Army Green Beret, was charged with murdering an Afghan man during a 2010 deployment to Afghanistan.

 

Gallagher, a decorated SEAL team platoon leader, was accused of committing various war crimes while deployed in Iraq in 2017.

 

In July, a military jury acquitted him of murdering a captured Islamic State fighter by stabbing the wounded prisoner in the neck, but it convicted him of illegally posing with the detainee's corpse. That had led to his rank being reduced.

 

Golsteyn received word of his pardon from Trump, who spoke with him by telephone for several minutes, Golsteyn's attorney Phillip Stackhouse said in a statement.

 

"Our family is profoundly grateful for the president's action. We have lived in constant fear of this runaway prosecution," Golsteyn was quoted saying in the statement.

 

The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the president's action.

 

"With this utterly shameful use of presidential powers, Trump has sent a clear message of disrespect for law, morality, the military justice system, and those in the military who abide by the laws of war," Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's National Security Project, said in a statement.

 

In May, Trump talked about how he was considering pardons for U.S. troops charged with war crimes, a move he acknowledged would be controversial but that he said was justified because they had been treated "unfairly."

 

The overwhelming majority of pardons are granted to people who have already been convicted and served time for a federal offence.

 

But presidents have occasionally granted pardons preemptively to individuals accused of or suspected of a crime.

 

The most famous such case was the blanket pardon President Gerald Ford bestowed on his predecessor, Richard Nixon, after Nixon's resignation during the Watergate scandal in 1974.

 

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Sandra Maler and Daniel Wallis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-11-16

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[Tippaporn 3,906]

Good on Trump.

[JustAnotherFarang 621]

9 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

Good on Trump.

I am aware of First Lieutenant Clint Lorance case as it is being streamed on Netflix but it is clear to everyone watching, including all of the men in his company who testified that he committed a war crime and was duly sentenced.  Trumps pardon is a disgraceful effort to curry favour with the idiots he hopes will blindly vote for him again and judging by the low brow intelligence of his supporters, they probably will

 

JAF

 

 

[OneMoreFarang 13,282]

22 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

But presidents have occasionally granted pardons preemptively to individuals accused of or suspected of a crime.

 

The most famous such case was the blanket pardon President Gerald Ford bestowed on his predecessor, Richard Nixon, after Nixon's resignation during the Watergate scandal in 1974.

I hope the next president won't do that with the current president...

[JAG 23,346]

4 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I hope the next president won't do that with the current president...

Oh but he will, if/when he agrees to go quietly...

[Chelseafan 2,098]

I have the utmost respect for those who protect our values and our freedom, what these people go through must be hell.

Perhaps we should put the American Civil Liberties Union on the front line for a few months rather than letting them rant from behind their desks safe and sound.

 

 

[Enoon 6,183]

2 hours ago, Chelseafan said:

I have the utmost respect for those who protect our values and our freedom, what these people go through must be hell.

Perhaps we should put the American Civil Liberties Union on the front line for a few months rather than letting them rant from behind their desks safe and sound.

 

 

 

Perhaps you failed to notice that his behaviour was first reported by soldiers who were serving alongside him and under his command......."in the front line."

 

"Another accusation was that Gallagher's sniper work during his 2017 deployment became indiscriminate, reckless, and bloodthirsty..............he took "random shots" into buildings.............. at least two militarily pointless shots, shooting and killing an unarmed old man in a white robe as well as a young girl walking with other girls........... boasted about the large number of people he had killed, claiming he averaged three kills a day over 80 days, including four women.........known for indiscriminately spraying neighborhoods with rockets and machine gun fire with no known enemy force in the region."

 

In their judgement he was quite definitely not doing the "right thing".

 

Perhaps you should go and serve with them?

 

Eddie Gallagher (Navy SEAL) - Wikipedia

 

 

Edited November 16 by Enoon

[Redline 3,084]

2 hours ago, Tippaporn said:

Good on Trump.

The generals asked him not to do it-he just lost more respect from top military ranks-funny watching him cut off his own legs

[Puchaiyank 8,447]

Most people believe in second chances...especially the dead!   

[scorecard 16,648]

2 hours ago, Chelseafan said:

I have the utmost respect for those who protect our values and our freedom, what these people go through must be hell.

Perhaps we should put the American Civil Liberties Union on the front line for a few months rather than letting them rant from behind their desks safe and sound.

 

 

Not quite that simple.

[spidermike007 23,630]

Again Donald is pandering to his devotees, and ignoring the rule of law. When a significant number of his fellow soldiers speak of the atrocities this terrorist US sniper has committed, you know the extent of his guilt. These good men and women did not make that stuff up. 

 

The reality is that the military is a weak spot for Trump. When his time to serve his nation came, he showed us what a coward he is, with five deferments. When General Kelly served as his chief of staff, he ignored all of his good advice. When the joint chiefs advised Trump not to pull out of Syria he ignored them too. One can assume most of the military despises the man and has little respect for Trump. 

 

This ill advised pardon is a weak kneed plea for votes at a time when total lack of honor is bring exposed to the world. Don Donald is going down. One can only hope he will not be pardoned after he loses the election next year. 

[giddyup 14,241]

3 hours ago, Chelseafan said:

I have the utmost respect for those who protect our values and our freedom, what these people go through must be hell.

Perhaps we should put the American Civil Liberties Union on the front line for a few months rather than letting them rant from behind their desks safe and sound.

 

 

They still have to abide by a code of conduct, not slaughter innocent civilians indiscriminately. The US is about as popular as a pork chop in a synagogue in the middle east as it is for creating an illegal war.

Edited November 16 by giddyup

[bristolboy 15,357]

3 hours ago, Chelseafan said:

I have the utmost respect for those who protect our values and our freedom, what these people go through must be hell.

Perhaps we should put the American Civil Liberties Union on the front line for a few months rather than letting them rant from behind their desks safe and sound.

 

 

So you have respect for the soldiers  who reported him in the first place?

Edited November 16 by bristolboy

[bristolboy 15,357]

Another foreign policy coup for Trump. First he decides to go back into Syria in order, according to his own stated reason to protect the oil. Then he proposes awarding it to Exxon which would be illegal. And of course, that is going to ingratiate the US even more in the Mideast. Now he absolves soldiers who committed war crimes in the Mideast.

[puck2 888]

To get it across in one sentence:

 

A criminal supports criminals.

 

Our dog has a good moral. Trump's is far below some animal standard as shown again in this case. And there are a lot of idi@ts who defend such a lousy character.

 

It will take a long time for successors of this LOTUS (Liar Of The ....) to "make America great again", if possible at all. This slouch has destroyed the credibility of the USA.