TEHRAN, Nov 26_US President Donald Trump has defended a controversial pardon he has granted to a Navy SEAL convicted of war crimes.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club(YJC)_There’s never been a president that’s going to stick up for them, and has, like I have,” Trump told reporters in the White House on Monday, saying that “some very unfair things were happening.”
Earlier, the US president directly ordered Pentagon chief Mark Esper to allow Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher to retire as a Navy SEAL.
Gallagher was accused of stabbing an unarmed 17-year-old Daesh prisoner to death and randomly shooting Iraqi civilians. He was acquitted of those charges and convicted only of the lesser charge of posing with the Daesh prisoner's corpse.
"I spoke with the President on Sunday. He gave me the order that Eddie Gallagher will retain his Trident pin," Esper told reporters at the Pentagon on Monday, referring to Gallagher.
Trump on Monday contrasted his interference in the military justice system with the treatment of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and Chelsea Manning, the former military intelligence analyst responsible for the biggest breach of classified materials in US history.
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