LEGAL/MILITARY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WAR: “President Trump intervened Tuesday [7-30-19] once again on behalf of a Navy SEAL who was charged but acquitted of war crimes in the death of a captured Islamic State fighter in Iraq, ordering the military to punish the prosecutors who tried the case in the first place. Mr. Trump angrily lashed out at the Navy for awarding commendations to prosecutors in the murder trial of Edward Gallagher, a former special operations chief, and he publicly instructed Pentagon officials to strip them of the medals. His announcement was a remarkable rebuke by a president of his own Navy leadership…Chief Gallagher’s case had become a cause célèbre among Republican lawmakers and the conservative news media, eventually drawing the attention of Mr. Trump, who spoke out on his behalf. In March, the president said that he would order the chief be moved to less restrictive pretrial confinement in honor of his service to his country. Chief Gallagher was turned in by members of his own SEAL platoon, who accused him of stabbing a captured and wounded teenage fighter repeatedly in the neck with a custom hunting knife in 2017.”
–Peter Baker, “Trump Orders Navy to Strip Medals From Prosecutors in War Crimes Trial,” The New York Times online, July 31, 2019