Pentagon Fires Navy Secretary Richard Spencer After Controversy Over Navy SEAL Case

The chief of the U.S. Navy on Sunday criticized President Donald
Trump after being sacked in a dispute over an elite SEAL (Sea, Air,
and Land) commando whose demotion for misconduct was reversed by
the president.

Richard Spencer was ousted as navy secretary, a civilian
position, in a case that has fueled reports of anger among U.S.
military leadership over Trump’s interference in discipline
cases.

“I no longer share the same understanding with the Commander in
Chief who appointed me, in regards to the key principles of good
order and discipline,” Spencer said in a stinging letter published
by U.S. media.

“I hereby acknowledge my termination as United States Secretary
of the Navy.”

The dispute centers on the fate of U.S. Navy SEAL Edward
Gallagher who was accused of war crimes in a high-profile case but
was found guilty of a lesser offense.

On Nov. 15, Trump — the commander-in-chief of the U.S. military
— reversed the demotion handed down to Gallagher.

Trump tweeted Sunday that Gallagher had been “treated very
badly” by the navy, and that Spencer had been asked to resign over
the issue and over his alleged failure to address budget
overruns.

The president said Gallagher will not be expelled from the elite
SEAL force.

“Eddie will retire peacefully with all of the honors that he has
earned,” Trump tweeted.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he had asked for Spencer’s
resignation “after losing trust and confidence in him regarding his
lack of candor over conversations with the White House,” the
Department of Defense said in a statement.

Esper said he was “deeply troubled by this conduct.”

The U.S. Navy had launched a discipline procedure which could
have stripped Gallagher and three other members of his unit of
their prestigious Trident pins — effectively booting them from the
SEAL force.

But the intervention of Trump appeared to cut short that
process.

Trump this month also dismissed a second degree murder
conviction against U.S. Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, who was six
years into a 19-year term for ordering soldiers in 2012 to fire on
three unarmed Afghan men on a motorcycle, two of whom died.

And he granted clemency to West Point graduate Matt Golsteyn, a
former member of the elite U.S. Army Green Berets, charged with
premeditated murder in the shooting death of an alleged Taliban
bomb-maker in 2010.

Gallagher, a U.S. Navy SEAL commando, was accused in the
stabbing death of a wounded Islamic State prisoner in Iraq in 2017,
attempted murder of other civilians, and obstruction of
justice.

In July, he was acquitted of charges related to those
accusations but was convicted of posing with the slain fighter’s
body in a group picture with other SEALs.

As a result, he was demoted one rank, from chief petty officer
to petty officer 1st class.

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Gallagher accused the navy of
acting in retaliation after he lodged a complaint.

“They could have taken my Trident (pin) at any time they
wanted,” he said. “Now they’re trying to take it after the
president restored my rank.”

Gallagher’s case has been strongly championed by Fox News and
Trump’s conservative base, but it has also drawn criticism that the
president was undermining military judicial process.

Culled from japantimes.co.jp