Navy Secretary Richard Spencer has been fired after he defied President Trump by refusing to halt a disciplinary process against SEAL Eddie Gallagher.
In a stinging rebuke to the president, Spencer said in statement tonight that he ‘cannot in good conscience’ obey an order he believes ‘violates the sacred oath’ he took.
He said that he disagrees with Trump on the ‘key principle of good order and discipline’.
A copy of the letter is below:
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper tonight said that he had asked Spencer to step down because he had gone behind his back.
Esper said that Spencer had promised White House officials that Gallagher would retire with his SEAL trident if they did not interfere with his review board.
Gallagher, who was accused of war crimes in Iraq, is due to face a disciplinary board that has the power to kick him out of the elite unit.
Trump tweeted a week ago that the board should not go ahead and Gallagher would stay in the unit.
It was reported yesterday that both Spencer and the admiral in charge of the SEALs threatened to resign if Trump didn’t back down, but Spencer claimed that he never threatened to resign in a tweet, adding that he serves at the ‘pleasure of the president’.
Following the news of Spencer’s resignation, Trump said in a series of tweets: ‘I was not pleased with the way that Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher’s trial was handled by the Navy. He was treated very badly but, despite this, was completely exonerated on all major charges. I then restored Eddie’s rank.
‘Likewise, large cost overruns from past administration’s contracting procedures were not addressed to my satisfaction.’
Trump continued: ‘Therefore, Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer’s services have been terminated by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. I thank Richard for his service & commitment. Eddie will retire peacefully with all of the honors that he has earned, including his Trident Pin.
Trump then tweeted that admiral and Ambassador to Norway, Ken Braithwaite, ‘will be nominated by me to be the new Secretary of the Navy’.
‘A man of great achievement and success, I know Ken will do an outstanding job!’ the president added.
Earlier today the White House said that Trump would not interfere in the process and it appeared as if the president was backing down.
Trump’s apparent about-face came just as Gallagher, who was demoted in rank after he was convicted in July of a war crime for posing with a corpse, appeared on Fox & Friends Sunday morning and praised the president for his continued support.
‘I don’t know how many times I can thank the president. He keeps stepping in and doing the right thing,’ he said. ‘I just want to let him know that the rest of the SEAL community is not about this right now. They all respect the president.’
One of the members of Gallagher’s unit — Alpha Platoon, SEAL Team 7 — earlier this year testified that Gallagher confessed that he “killed four women,” according to Naval Criminal Investigative Service files and legal records provided to Navy Times.
Two other SEAL petty officers told investigators Gallagher bragged about slaying “10-20 people a day or 150-200 people on deployment,” court documents state.
And a fellow sniper told a panel that Gallagher claimed, “he averaged three kills a day over 80 days,” according to legal filings obtained by Navy Times.
Three other SEALs claimed their platoon chief took “random shots, sometimes into buildings, where he claimed to have killed someone,” similar filings allege.
One of the SEALs overhead the chief say he was “OK with shooting women” and another saw him “fire into a crowd of what appeared to be noncombatants multiple times,” records state.
Still more SEALs claimed that Gallagher attempted to cover up these alleged crimes by threatening to murder witnesses and embarking on a campaign to identify other whistleblowers, get them blacklisted in the special warfare community and ruin their careers.
Gallagher claimed the move to revoke his SEAL status was ‘retaliation’ for Trump’s public bid to restore his rank the week prior and accused Navy top brass of ‘insubordination’.
‘This is all about ego and retaliation. This has nothing to do with good order and discipline,’ Gallagher told Fox & Friends.
The SEAL also charged that Navy officers engaged in ‘corruption’ during his case – and revealed that he is armed with additional evidence against top officials.
‘Just recently we come up more evidence that will be exposing next week that the secretary of the Navy [Spencer] was actually meddling in my case and trying to get organizations not to support me while I was incarcerated,’ Gallagher said.
‘They could have taken my Trident at any time they wanted now trying to take it after president restored my rank.
‘I just want to retire peacefully with all the honors that I have earned. Get back to my family,’ he added, noting that he hopes to retire by November 30.
Gallagher was earlier convicted of bringing discredit to the armed services after posing next to a dead ISIS fighter’s body, which is against regulations.
He was then demoted in rank.