Just a small crisis in the civilian-military relationship
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WaPo:'Insurgents' lobbied Trump for war crimes pardons with little Pentagon involvement, officials say
Rear Adm. Charles Brown, the Navy's top spokesman, said in a statement Thursday night that the service is aware of the president's tweet and awaiting further guidance.
How Trump came to believe that the Pentagon could not handle the cases fairly, and ultimately issue the pardons, reflects his tendency to accept the advice of people outside his administration. The president mostly left defense officials out of his discussions about the issue until a few weeks ago and told his top advisers that his supporters would back the move, according to five officials familiar with the situation.
Instead, the officials said, Trump discussed the issue with other people in his orbit, including Pete Hegseth, a Fox News personality who highlighted the cases on his show and described the service members as heroes facing malicious prosecution. Trump called Hegseth numerous times to discuss the issue and told others about the conversations, according to one current and one former administration official.
This account of how Trump reached his decision — and what comes next — is based on interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with the cases, including White House and Pentagon officials. Many of them spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue and a desire to avoid the president's ire.
On Thursday, Mr. Trump, referring to the pin that signifies membership in an elite force, said on Twitter that "The Navy will NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher's Trident Pin." He added: "This case was handled very badly from the beginning. Get back to business!"
One argument that officials said may be relied on is the assumption that a tweet does not constitute a formal presidential order. Mr. Esper and General Milley conveyed to the president that if he followed up that tweet with a direct order, there would be huge consequences: Mr. Trump would lose Mr. Spencer and Admiral Green, further infuriate his top military leadership and do untold damage to decades of military justice doctrine, according to administration officials.
Administration officials said they now hoped that Mr. Trump would allow the proceedings to continue, but it is unclear whether the president will do so. The debate over Mr. Gallagher comes as Mr. Trump, facing a difficult re-election battle and an impeachment inquiry, has increasingly sought to highlight his role as commander in chief.
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Chief Gallagher's lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, said the president was right to stop the process of ousting the commando because the Navy's move was clear retribution, coming just days after the president's decision to restore his rank.
"With the timing, it's difficult to see how this was anything but a direct, public rebuke to the president," Mr. Parlatore said. "So I can't see how the secretary of defense or anyone else is going to convince the president that is O.K."
On Friday, Mr. Spencer made clear that he wanted to move forward with the matter, which could strip Chief Gallagher of his Trident pin. "I believe the process matters for good order and discipline," he told Reuters in an interview at a security forum in Nova Scotia.
On Saturday, a Navy spokesman pointed to those remarks. "The secretary's comments are in line with current White House guidance," said Rear Adm. Charlie Brown, the chief spokesman for the Navy.
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The Pentagon had already been quietly fuming this month after Mr. Trump cleared three members of the armed services, including Chief Gallagher, who were accused or had been convicted of war crimes, overruling military leaders who sought to punish them. All three were lionized by conservative commentators who portrayed them as war heroes unfairly prosecuted for actions taken in the heat of battle.
