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Fired Navy Secretary Richard Spencer’s outburst at President Trump in a Washington Post op-ed published Wednesday, calling the president’s handling of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher’s case a “shocking and unprecedented intervention in a low-level review” is in and of itself shocking and unprecedented in several ways. Spencer wrote: “The president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices.” In reality, Spencer is the man who bypassed the chain of command by cutting Secretary of Defense Mark Esper out of his...

In an op-ed published by the Military Times, Sean Gallagher, brother of Navy SEAL Edward "Eddie" Gallagher, blasted politicians and military leaders who say President Trump's interventions in preventing more punitive action against his brother were wrong. Gallagher criticized "military attorneys, indignant Pentagon officials and your typical Washington establishment types" for being hypocritical when it came to good order and discipline. "Their views were mainly the same. The president’s actions were a moral hazard ! What message will it send our troops? What of good order and discipline? I have one question for these people: Where in the hell were...

Fired Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer lashed out at President Trump in an interview with CBS News on the steps of the Pentagon Monday evening. Spencer, who mutinied against Trump over his order to not kick Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher out of the Navy SEALs, also attacked Trump in his letter acknowledging his firing this past weekend over the Gallagher case. Spencer said of Trump, “What message does that send to the troops? That you can get away with this? We have to have good order and discipline. It is the backbone of what we do. I don’t...

Defense Secretary Mark Esper fired Navy Secretary Richard Spencer Sunday over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL who posed for a photo next to an Islamic State terrorist's corpse in Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman said Sunday. “Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper has asked for the resignation of Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer after losing trust and confidence in him regarding his lack of candor over conversations with the White House involving the handling of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher," Department of Defense spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement Sunday. Controversy continued to swirl around whether...

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper asked for the resignation of Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer on Sunday after losing confidence in him over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq, the Pentagon said. Spencer’s resignation came in the wake of the controversial case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was accused of war crimes on a 2017 deployment. He was acquitted of murder but convicted in July of posing with the corpse of a captive. Esper asked for Spencer’s resignation after learning that he had privately proposed to...

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy Secretary said on Saturday he did not threaten to resign amid a disagreement with President Donald Trump over whether a Navy SEAL convicted of battlefield misconduct should face a board of peers who may oust him from the elite force. “There seem to be rumors out there that I threatened to resign. I have not threatened to resign,” Richard Spencer told reporters at a security conference in Halifax. The New York Times reported earlier on Saturday that Spencer had threatened to quit if Trump subverted the process. Spencer said Special Operations Chief...

[Headline not true according to article] Navy Secretary Richard Spencer threatened to resign if the Navy was not allowed to go through with an administrative review board next month to determine if Eddie Gallagher could remain a SEAL, multiple Navy officials confirmed to Fox News. Earlier Saturday, The New York Times reported that along with Spencer, Naval Special Warfare (NSW) Commander Rear Adm. Collin Green also threatened to resign if the Navy carries out the request of President Trump to restore Gallagher’s rank to chief petty officer after he was demoted last summer. Gallagher was found not guilty of murdering...

The secretary of the Navy and the admiral who leads the SEALs have threatened to resign or be fired if plans to expel a commando from the elite unit in a war crimes case are halted by President Trump, administration officials said Saturday.

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said on Friday a Navy SEAL convicted of battlefield misconduct should face a board of peers weighing whether to oust him from the elite force, despite President Donald Trump's assertion that he not be expelled. 'I believe the process matters for good order and discipline,' Spencer told Reuters, weighing in on a confrontation between Trump and senior Navy officials over the outcome of a high-profile war-crimes case.... ...The Navy responded with a statement saying it would follow 'lawful orders' from the president to halt the review but was awaiting further guidance, suggesting his Twitter post was...

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (Reuters) - U.S. Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said on Friday a Navy SEAL convicted of battlefield misconduct should face a board of peers weighing whether to oust him from the elite force, despite President Donald Trump's assertion that he not be expelled. "I believe the process matters for good order and discipline," Spencer told Reuters, weighing in on a confrontation between Trump and senior Navy officials over the outcome of a high-profile war-crimes case.

The attorney for Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher said on "Fox & Friends" Thursday that the Navy is trying to humiliate his client by potentially taking away his SEAL Trident, as President Trump reaffirmed his support for the embattled soldier. "This is an action that they could have taken at any time from July right after the verdict, until today," his lawyer Tim Parlatore said. "President Trump takes action on a Friday afternoon — Monday morning, the admiral [Adm. Collin Green] comes in and brings everybody together and says 'I disagree with the president, we're going to take his Trident.'" "This...

An attorney for a Navy SEAL convicted of posing with a dead Islamic State militant contended Wednesday that Navy leaders are trying to remove him from the elite force in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s decision last week to restore his rank. Rear Adm. Collin Green made his intentions clear at a staff meeting Monday that he wants to remove Special Warfare Operations Chief Edward Gallagher’s Trident pin, which designates him as a SEAL, attorney Timothy Parlatore said. Green is the Naval Special Warfare commander. “What I’m hearing is that the rear admiral said very disparaging comments about the president...

In what will undoubtedly be interpreted by many as an act of defiance against President Trump, the top Navy SEAL, Rear Admiral Collin Green, will notify Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher and three other officers that their case is being sent to a review board which could end in their expulsion from the SEALS. "This is a review of their suitability to be a SEAL," a Navy Officer said. The action would come less than a week after Mr. Trump intervened in the military justice case against Gallagher by ordering him restored to the rank of Chief Petty Officer, despite his...

Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Grant of Clemency (Full Pardon) for Army First Lieutenant Clint Lorance, an Executive Grant of Clemency (Full Pardon) for Army Major Mathew Golsteyn, and an order directing the promotion of Special Warfare Operator First Class Edward R. Gallagher to the grade of E-7, the rank he held before he was tried and found not guilty of nearly all of the charges against him. In early July 2012, only days after Lieutenant Lorance had taken command of his platoon in one of the most dangerous battle zones in Afghanistan, a motorcycle with three...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is expected to intervene in three military justice cases involving service members charged with war crimes any day, issuing pardons or otherwise clearing them of wrongdoing and preventing the U.S. military from bringing the same charges again, three U.S. officials said Thursday. White House and Pentagon officials have been working out the details for days, said the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. The details were not all clear, but the move is expected to involve executive clemency, in which Trump can pardon someone or shorten a...

President Donald J. Trump has decided to restore convicted SEAL Edward Gallagher’s pay grade to chief petty officer, overriding a decision last week by the Navy’s top admiral, Fox News reports “This president recognizes the injustice of it,” Pete Hegseth said during Fox and Friends after speaking with the president. “You train someone to go fight and kill the enemy. Then they go kill the enemy the way someone doesn’t like, and then we put them in jail or we throw the book at them.”.

Fox News host Pete Hegseth said President Trump is expected to make an announcement in the next week about restoring the rank of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher. Hegseth said on “Fox & Friends” Monday morning that he learned the news during a conversation with Trump over the weekend, and the actions by the president are expected to come before Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11, Fox News reported. “It doesn’t have to be a pardon or a commutation,” Hegseth said. “It could be, but pardons and commutations imply guilt, that you’ve done something wrong and you need to be forgiven for that....

The Navy has dismissed charges against Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher’s platoon leader and ordered a review of its justice system. Lt. Jacob Portier was charged with covering up war crimes in connection with the Gallagher prosecution and faced trial in September. “Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson today dismissed all charges in the case of Lt. Jacob Portier,” a Navy statement said Thursday, according to the San Diego News-Tribune. “Richardson took this action in the best interest of justice and the Navy.” Richardson also ordered a review of the Navy’s Judge Advocate General Corps, which prosecuted Gallagher and Portier....

​President Trump said Wednesday that he would order the Navy to rescind medals given to military lawyers who prosecuted a ​former ​Navy SEAL the president supported during his court martial on murder charges. “The Prosecutors who lost the case against SEAL Eddie Gallagher (who I released from solitary confinement so he could fight his case properly), were ridiculously given a Navy Achievement Medal,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I have directed the Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer & Chief of Naval Operations John Richardson to immediately withdraw and rescind the awards​,” Trump continued.

Jury finds Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher not guilty of war crimes