Free Republic

Full title: Citing prosecutor misconduct, defense urges judge to drop charges against Navy SEAL charged with murderDefense attorneys for a Navy SEAL charged with war crimes argued Friday that military prosecutors’ actions amounted to misconduct so egregious that all the charges against their client, Chief Special Operator Edward R. Gallagher, should be dismissed. The judge in the case, while agreeing prosecutors violated Gallagher’s rights, did not immediately rule on their motion. Gallagher is charged with killing a wounded ISIS fighter in Iraq in 2017 after providing medical care. Other charges he faces are related to fellow SEALs’ statements that he...

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...

A military judge on Monday took the rare step of removing a prosecutor accused of misconduct from the war crimes case of a decorated Navy SEAL. Capt. Aaron Rugh ordered Cmdr. Christopher Czaplak removed from the case of Operations Chief Edward Gallagher after defense lawyers accused the prosecution of spying on their emails, according to the ruling. ~snip~ Rugh has not yet ruled on whether to dismiss murder and attempted murder counts against Gallagher.

​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.