President-elect Donald Trump’s defense secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth, is already drawing controversy over his role in former Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher’s presidential pardon.
Gallagher was a decorated Navy SEAL who drew international attention for allegations of war crimes during his time fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq, particularly during the Battle of Mosul. He was arrested and charged with several war crimes in 2018, including the killing of civilians and stabbing a teenage Islamic State group prisoner then taking a photograph with his corpse. A military court acquitted Gallagher on all charges except for taking a photograph with the corpse.
Trump personally involved himself in the case after the lobbying of figures on Fox News, particularly Hegseth. He pardoned Gallagher in 2019 and reinstated his rank.
Hegseth heavily covered Gallagher’s case at its height through his role at Fox News. It was primarily through this that Trump, a noted Fox News fan, took interest in the case.
“We’re going to take care of our warriors, and I will always stick up for our great fighters,” Trump said at a November 2019 rally. “People can sit there in air-conditioned offices and complain, but you know what? It doesn’t matter to me whatsoever.”
In a 2019 appearance on Fox News, Gallagher’s brother personally thanked Hegseth live on air for his support of the Navy SEAL.
Aside from Gallagher, Hegseth also successfully lobbied Trump to pardon two other soldiers accused of war crimes, Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn and First Lt. Clint Lorance.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Gallagher for comment.
Gallagher remained the subject of controversy after his pardon when he sought revenge against his former colleagues who testified against him, posting a Facebook video in January 2020 showing the pictures and names of them.
“Even though I went to trial, exposed all the lies that were said about me by certain cowards in my platoon, and found not guilty, there are those to this day who refuse to accept that fact,” he said in the video.
The video was met with widespread outrage, with many arguing that Gallagher was putting active-duty Navy SEALs in danger by disclosing their identities.
Shortly beforehand, in December 2019, Gallagher told the Washington Examiner that his “first reaction to seeing the videos was surprise and disgust that they would make up blatant lies about me, but I quickly realized that they were scared that the truth would come out of how cowardly they acted on deployment. I felt sorry for them that they thought it necessary to smear my name, but they never realized what the consequences of their lies would be.”
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The move alienated many former defenders and could pose a problem for Hegseth. 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 supporter, selling merchandise such as pro-Trump brass knuckles on his website.
