Former Secretary of State and failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says it’s “grotesque” that President Donald Trump could pardon some U.S. service members accused of war crimes.
“This is grotesque,” Clinton tweeted Monday night, along with a link to a New York Times article about several service members – including Navy SEAL Chief Eddie Gallagher and Army Maj. Matthew Golsteyn – whom Trump is considering pardoning.
This is grotesque. https://t.co/CvFf9rPO2H
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 20, 2019
It had been reported that President Trump is preparing to review pardons for some U.S. service members accused of crimes, and that he could pardon the service members as early as Memorial Day or around that time. The President has asked the Justice Department to prepare the necessary paperwork for that timeframe, The Times reported, citing two unnamed U.S. officials.
Gallagher, a 15-year Navy SEAL, is charged with premeditated murder, accused of stabbing and killing a critically wounded ISIS fighter during a 2017 deployment to Mosul. He is also accused of shooting at unarmed civilians. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is set to begin May 28.
Golsteyn is accused of murdering a Taliban bomb maker in 2010, which he admitted to the CIA during an interview that year and was cleared of wrongdoing after an Army investigation. But the case was reopened in 2016 after Golsteyn did a Fox News interview and admitted to killing the bomb maker again. Just last week, the Army decided that the case would move forward to a court-martial trial. No date has been set yet.
Clinton did not offer other commentary aside from her tweet Monday night.
People were quick to point out that she is one to talk, as she oversaw and made decisions about Sept. 11, 2012, when four Americans – including two Navy SEALs – were killed in an attack against two U.S. government facilities in Benghazi, Libya.
The U.S. Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens; U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith; and CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen “Bub” Doherty, both former Navy SEALs, were killed in the terrorist attack against the Benghazi compound.
A report released in 2016 revealed that the Obama Administration and Clinton failed to protect the American diplomats. The 800-page report revealed that in the months leading up to the attack, there was worsening security in Libya, poor bureaucratic leadership and inadequate resources. The report showed Clinton and the State Department’s inadequacy to protect the Libyan diplomatic outpost. The report also revealed that the CIA missed the threat and wrote faulty intelligence after the attack. The final report of the Benghazi attack also criticizes Clinton’s use of a private email account during the attacks.
Clinton later told a U.S. House committee that she was aware of the dangers in Libya but “there was no actionable intelligence” indicating a planned terrorist attack. The report showed that intelligence was available, but Clinton and her top aide, Patrick Kennedy, failed to realize the risk of a potential attack.
Gallagher’s wife, Andrea Gallagher, posted about Clinton’s commentary on pardons on Monday night.
“Talk about grotesque @hillaryclinton … have you so quickly forgotten BENGHAZI?! I can think of no better word than GROTESQUE to describe your heinous deeds which lead you to willingly sacrifice American lives at the tip of the spear than Benghazi 🇺🇸 NEVER FORGET ~ Chris, Sean, Glen, & Ty 🐸🔱🙏🏻,” she wrote.
