Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher is seeking a pardon from President Trump, and he’s calling on Congress to help him.
For the first time, the Gallagher team is asking for a pardon and official efforts are underway, with at least 30 members of Congress having committed to sign a joint letter they will send to Trump requesting the pardon.
“We were hoping that at some point along the way someone would do something right and toss this whole thing out,” Gallagher’s brother, Sean Gallagher told American Military News.
“Now that all avenues have been exhausted, it’s up to the president,” he added.
The Gallagher team is still contacting Congressional offices to garner support, a process they anticipate pursuing for several weeks.
“We are asking members of Congress to sign onto our letter to the President and right the wrongdoing of the Navy and its leadership,” Andrea Gallagher, Eddie Gallagher’s wife, told American Military News. “We are going to appeal to the Commander in Chief – President Trump.”
Reps. Duncan Hunter, Ralph Norman, and Louie Gohmert are just three of more than 30 members to pledge their support for the pardon. The three members of Congress have previously supported Gallagher through his trial.
The Gallaghers are also working with the Justice for Warriors Caucus, a Congressional Caucus educating on and advocating for U.S. military personnel who have been “unjustly incarcerated under the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice).”
Gallagher was acquitted on July 2 of murder, a charge waged against him for the May 2017 death of an ISIS fighter in Mosul, Iraq.
The acquittal came after Petty Officer Corey Scott had revealed under oath – and under the protection of immunity that was granted by the government – that he made the decision to cover the ISIS fighter’s breathing tube so he would die by asphyxiation, or suffocation, which he did.
Gallagher and 10 others from Alpha Platoon, SEAL Team 7 were later photographed near the corpse, however, Gallagher was the only one charged with the act, and it was the only charge he was found guilty of.
Gallagher was sentenced to reduced rank from an E7 to an E6, forfeiture of partial pay for four months, and four months confinement, which he already served during pre-trial confinement that President Trump intercepted.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday decided on Tuesday to uphold the sentence, denying Gallagher’s request to retire as an E7, but preventing him from retiring as an E1, a typically automatic consequence in accordance with Navy regulations.
“The CNOs decision to demote Eddie to E6 is adding another layer of insult to our family that has already suffered an immeasurable amount of injustice at the hands of the US Navy, UCMJ system, NCIS, JAGs, and even Eddie’s command at Naval Special Warfare,” Andrea Gallagher said.
“Only Eddie was selectively prosecuted and punished serving nearly 10 months in Pretrial Confinement for crimes he didn’t commit, our children taken out of our home at gun point by NCIS, and we have spent well over half a million in legal fees to fight the government he faithfully served for 2 decades,” Andrea Gallagher added.
Trump had said in May that he was considering pardons for “a lot of different people” some of whom were military service members accused or convicted of war crimes, though he did not name any individuals he was considering pardons for.
“We teach them how to be great fighters, and then when they fight, sometimes they get really treated very unfairly, so we’re going to take a look at it,” Trump said at the time.
Reports indicated that Trump was so close to issuing pardons — one of which was presumed to include Gallagher — that he had asked the Department of Justice to prepare the paperwork and was expected to issue pardons on Memorial Day.
Although the reports did not come to fruition, Trump did issue a pardon to Michael Behenna, a former Army first lieutenant who was convicted of killing Iraqi prisoner Ali Mansur Mohamed, a suspected al Qaeda operative, in 2009 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
