Pentagon Urges Trump Not to Interfere in Military Court Martials
President Trump delivers SOTU address to Congress. 9wikimedia Commons)
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper asked President Donald Trump not to involve himself in a series of cases involving current or former service members charged with war crimes on November 6. Trump had earlier expressed a desire to “dismiss a case or change a sentence,” according to Pete Hegseth, a Fox News contributor who spoke to the President over the weekend. Pentagon officials said they were concerned that Presidential interference in these cases would have “second and third order effects on good order and discipline.”
The three cases in question involve former 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, who is serving a 19-year sentence for ordering a soldier to fire on unarmed Afghan motorcyclists, Army Special Forces Maj. Matthew Golsteyn, who was charged with murder after killing an Afghan bombmaker and conspiring to destroy the body, and Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who is accused of fatally stabbing an unarmed ISIS fighter and posing in a picture next to him.
These high-profile cases have highlighted the conduct of U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the relative impunity they enjoy. In the case of Eddie Gallagher, a panel of Marine combat veterans acquitted him of war crimes and aggravated assault charges for allegedly shooting a pair of civilians. Although military prosecutors alleged that one of Gallagher’s senior officers attempted to cover up war crimes and called in dozens of Navy SEALS to testify, none were indicted or punished beyond administrative actions.
Trump has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with these cases, tweeting that “We train our boys to be killing machines, then prosecute them when they kill!” According to Hegseth, the President is keen to act before Veteran’s Day next Monday. Trump frequently takes an interest in court cases against service members, and in May, he pardoned Michael Behenna, a former Army Lieutenant who was convicted of murdering an Iraqi prisoner in 2008. He also pardoned Kristian Saucier, a former sailor who was jailed for a year for taking pictures inside a nuclear submarine, which is a classified space.
Secretary Esper told reporters that he had a “robust discussion” with the President, and said that he “offered, as I do in all matters, the facts, the options, my advice, the recommendations, and we’ll see how things play out.” Military officials have previously expressed concern that Presidential pardons would diminish the authority of commanders overseeing the cases and constitute undue command influence.
These cases have called the culture of U.S. special forces into question, and General Clarke, who heads U.S. Special Operations Command, ordered a comprehensive review of Special Forces culture and ethics in August in the wake of these cases, along with other incidents of sexual assault and improper conduct. In a letter announcing the review, he wrote that these incidents had “threatened the trust” placed in Special Forces, and vowed to look at how Special Forces recruit and train soldiers and how the services address ethical failures when they occur.