Posted on 06/22/2019 12:00:56 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The trial of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher resumed Friday with prosecutors expected to call two Navy SEAL snipers to testify on charges he shot at innocent civilians while he led a SEAL platoon deployment to Iraq in 2017. However, whether the prosecution can recover from a bombshell courtroom revelation on Thursday remains unclear.
On Thursday, the prosecution’s star witness, medic Navy SEAL Special Operator 1st Class Corey Scott, shocked the courtroom by admitting that he was the one who killed a wounded Islamic State in Iraq and Syria fighter, not Gallagher, as he is accused of doing.
According to NBC News, defense attorney Tim Parlatore asked Scott during cross-examination, “How did you do it?”
Scott responded, “I put my thumb over his tube until he stopped breathing.” Parlatore asked, “Did you suffocate him?” Scott responded, “Yes.”
“Did Chief Gallagher kill the terrorist?” Parlatore asked. “No,” Scott responded.
When pressed why he never admitted doing it before, Scott reportedly said he was never asked.
Gallagher’s defense team emerged from the courtroom on Thursday defiant.
“As I’ve said since the beginning of this case, the best defense for Chief Gallagher is the truth. Today, the truth started to come out,” Parlatore said during a press conference.
He said Scott’s testimony was evidence of a “shoddy investigation”: “No investigator, no prosecutor ever asked, ‘What is the cause of death?’ … What we learned is Chief Gallagher is not guilty of murder.”
Parlatore said he knew to ask Scott further about how the ISIS fighter died after Scott mentioned “asphyxiated” during testimony earlier. “It was something that I heard earlier that stuck out to me… He’s a medic. He’s not just talking about ‘he stopped breathing.'”
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
You would think that would end the case!
That said, no matter the outcome, the prosecution should get held accountable. They made a mockery of the law several times over.
When the trial is over, President Trump needs to dismiss the prosecutor who was dismissed by the judge for misconduct and to file a complaint with the state bar in which that person is enrolled seeking to have his license to practice law revoked with prejudice.
The President also needs to dismiss the Admirals who authorized the court martial without doing due diligence into the claims made by the people who made the charges against Gallagher.
Finally, the President needs to dismiss those who made the false changes.
Hell yes.Support the troops.This was another witch hunt to be sure.The higher ups had a hard on for the Chief that much is clear.
Hi.
I’m kinda a hardass on this one. If you capture the enemy and they give you valuable intell, they live. If not they die.
In the sandbox, the Geneva conventions on land warfare mean nothing to the enemy.
5.56mm
The military justice system is rife with communistic officers intent on destroying the moral of the armed services!!!
The President needs to remand all of them to NK where unique punishments occur frequently...
The US Military rarely if ever admits to making a mistake.
Mistakes cost careers.
Not defending it, just the facts from long association with US Army.
Soldiers in combat are placed in an amoral situation. No one who hasn’t been in mortal combat, especially in the dust, heat, mud and blood, seen his friends killed, who has had to kill others and keep going, can possibly judge. Soldiers do go nuts and err on the side of caution. Things happen that in a “moral” environment outside of the killing zone would never pass muster. In kill-or-be-killed, I chose life for me and my friends. If anyone is to be held liable for what happens in a war zone, it has to be the officials sitting safe and sound who chose to send the soldier into that Hell.
Let’s hope that the folks sitting on the courts martial have all smelled fear and cordite in the same breath.
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