Gallagher, a painted Navy SEAL, was the subject of accusations of war acts during his combat with the Islamic State in Iraq, especially during the Battle of Mosul. He was detained, charged, and subsequently convicted of a number of war crimes in 2018, including killing citizens, stabbing a teen member of the Islamic State group, and then taking a photo with his body. Gallagher was cleared of all charges, aside from the one involving the body in a military judge.
After lobbying on Fox News, mainly Hegseth, Trump directly became involved in the case. In 2019, he reinstated Gallagher’s position and pardoned him.
Hegseth’s Fox News position at the time was strongly covered Gallagher’s situation. Trump, a well-known Fox News enthusiast, became interested in the case mainly because of this.
” We’re going to take care of our troops, and I will always keep up for our great combatants”, Trump said at a November 2019 march. ” People you sit there in air-conditioned practices and complain, but you know what? It does n’t matter to me whatsoever”.
In a 2019 appearance on Fox News, Gallagher’s nephew physically thanked Hegseth live on air for his support of the Navy SEAL.
Apart from Gallagher, Hegseth even successfully lobbied Trump to forgive two other men accused of war atrocities, Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn and First Lt. Clint Lorance.
Gallagher reached out for post from The Washington Examiner.
After receiving a pardon, Gallagher continued to face controversy after seeking retribution for his former coworkers ‘ abuse by posting a picture on Facebook in January 2020 that included their names and photos.
There are still people who refuse to accept that truth, he said in the picture.” Yet though I went to trial, exposed all the falsehoods that were said about me by some fools in my battalion, and was found not guilty.
Some people claimed that Gallagher was disclosing their names, putting active-duty Navy SEALs in risk by making the game public.
Gallagher told the , Washington Examiner that his” first response to seeing the video was wonder and disgust that they would fabricate obvious lies about me, but I quickly realized that they were scared that the reality may emerge from their cruel behavior on deployment,” the article reported in the month of December. I thought it was appropriate to slander my title, but they never realized the repercussions of their lies.
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Many of the original soldiers were turned off by the decision, which Hegseth might find problematic. Lawmakers at the time blasted Trump’s pardon of Gallagher, with Senate Armed Services Chairman , Jack Reed (D-RI ) saying it was a” serious disservice” to military service members.
Gallagher is an outspoken Trump admirer, selling items such as pro-Trump bronze hands on his website.
