Trump's rescue of convicted war criminals
He claims they "did what they were trained to do' and ‘liberals’ put them in jails
By Mike Sorrell
In late 2019, in the waning days of his first presidency, Donald Trump pardoned several Americans the U.S. military had convicted of war crimes.
“I got numerous soldiers out of jails because they did what they were trained to do,” Trump told The Spectator, a British magazine, in an interview last Thursday.
Trump’s explanation gives additional perspective to the pardons, which I wrote about in my March 2 Fight the Fire column, “Hegseth wants ‘warriors’ loyal to Trump: Will Trump order them to fight alongside Russians?” On March 3, Diana Stancy, White House reporter for Fox News, provided details about The Spectator interview, which is unavailable online.
Pete Hegseth, now secretary of defense, was a Fox News anchor in 2019.
Fox’s Stancy writes that Trump “shared details” how Hegseth “played a role in those pardons.” Hegseth would call him to talk about men facing war crimes charges who, Trump said, “did what they were trained to do.”
Trump told the interviewer, “In fact, whenever he called me, it was always to get somebody that was in trouble because he was too aggressive militarily out of jail.”
As Stancy reports, “Trump issued pardons to Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, Army Maj. Mathew Golsteyn and Navy Special Warfare Operator Chief Eddie Gallagher.”
“Lorance was serving a 19-year sentence in prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for murder for ordering his soldiers to open fire on unarmed Afghan civilians in 2012.
“Golsteyn also faced charges for murdering an alleged Taliban bomb maker in 2010 and then burning the remains in a pit.
“Gallagher also faced murder charges for stabbing an Islamic State prisoner in 2017, and was acquitted in July 2019. However, he was convicted for posing in a photo next to the corpse and subsequently was demoted one rank. Trump’s pardon restored him to his previous rank.”
The U.S. military has laws of war that specify what sorts of conduct violate military standards, and military juries convicted the three men Trump pardoned.
But Trump told The Spectator, "The liberals within the military put them in jails. They teach him to be a soldier. They teach him to kill bad people, and when they kill bad people, they want to put them in jail for thirty years. And Pete was really into that."
During Hegseth’s confirmation hearing last month, Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, pointed out that service members who fought alongside Lorance and Gallagher spoke out against them and reported their actions.
“They did their duty as soldiers to report war crimes," Reed said in January. "Your definition of lethality seems to embrace those people who do commit war crimes, rather than those who stand up and say, 'This is not right.'”
Fox’s Stancy writes, “The Department of Defense referred Fox News Digital to the White House for comment. The White House did not provide additional comment, and it’s unclear if the Trump administration is considering pardons for other service members accused of war crimes.”
I am a Navy Vet who served 4 years on a destroyer.
My anger is palpable for the treatment of The Chief of Naval Operations by a cockroach who refused to serve our Country .
If you are a Veteran who supports Trump your traitorous and shameful behavior will haunt you until your death which for the sake of our democracy,I hope is sooner rather than later.
All quite disturbing. And half of America will think these pardons were justified, because there is no room for details or nuance. Facts are inconvenient to the narrative of MAGA and Trump.