navy seal pardoned by trump for war crimes

'Our family is profoundly grateful for the president's action. 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. 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. Gallagher, a decorated SEAL team platoon leader, was accused of committing various war crimes while deployed in Iraq in 2017. Last year, Golsteyn, an Army Green Beret, was charged with murdering an Afghan man during a 2010 deployment to Afghanistan.

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

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. '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. These actions are in keeping with this long history,' the statement said.Ī Pentagon spokesperson said the Department of Defense has confidence in the military justice system. '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. 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. 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.

Navy seal pardoned by trump for war crimes