Hegseth's role in Trump's pardons of men accused of war crimes

President-elect Donald Trump's announcement that he will nominate Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the Defense Department in his second term has already sparked controversy.

Hegseth, a military veteran, staunch supporter of Trump's “America First” agenda and outspoken critic of what he calls the military's “woke” culture, has built a career around challenging the military establishment. He played an influential role in pushing for Trump to intervene on behalf of service members in three cases involving war crimes allegations in 2019 – cases that divided the military and sparked heated debates about the limits of executive power and military accountability.

Now, if confirmed as the next defense secretary, Hegseth will oversee 1.3 million active-duty military personnel and manage military strategy at a time of global instability, raising questions about how his past dealings with accused war criminals will impact his military leadership and discipline.

During Trump's first term, Hegseth advocated for the pardons of Army Lt. Clint Lorance and Army Maj. Mathew Golsteyn and pushed to support Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, both of whom were charged or convicted in connection with alleged war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hegseth's advocacy for the three service members appeared to pay off: In November 2019, Trump pardoned Lorance and Golsteyn and reversed a demotion of Gallagher, citing Hegseth and Fox News when tweeting about his decision to review one of the service members' cases.

Hegseth's vocal defense of these men as victims of overzealous law enforcement caused a stir in the military community, where such interventions by civilians are seen by some as a threat to the integrity of the justice system. “These are men who went to the most dangerous places in the world with the task of defending us and made tough decisions at every moment,” Hegseth said on Fox & Friends in May 2019. “They are not war criminals, they are warriors.”

Lorance was convicted by a military court in 2013 of murdering two Afghan men during a military operation in 2012 in which he ordered his soldiers to open fire on a group of unarmed Afghan civilians he believed were insurgents. Lorance served six years of a 19-year prison sentence before Trump granted him a pardon in November 2019 after lobbying by Hegseth and others, saying he had been unfairly targeted by military prosecutors and that his actions were in a combat environment If there were divisions, it would have been justified – split-second decisions were often necessary for survival.

Golsteyn, a former Green Beret, was accused of murdering an unarmed Afghan man in 2010, a suspect he believed was responsible for the killing of U.S. troops. Although Golsteyn was awarded the Silver Star for his actions in Afghanistan, he later admitted to killing the suspect during a CIA interview, triggering an investigation and eventual indictment against him. Trump granted him a pardon in November 2019 after Hegseth interviewed Golsteyn on his show.

Gallagher has been charged by the Navy with several crimes, including shooting civilians in Iraq, killing a teenage Islamic State prisoner in Iraq with a knife in 2017 and threatening to kill other SEALs if they reported him. Gallagher was acquitted by a military jury of murder charges, but was found guilty of a single count of posing for photographs with the deceased's body. As punishment, his rank was demoted by one level. Trump reversed Gallagher's demotion and restored his rank and benefits.

For Hegseth, an Army National Guard veteran who served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, these cases were emblematic of a broader pattern of military prosecutors and officials unfairly targeting service members making difficult decisions on the military had hit the battlefield. He argued that the military justice system was too quick to prosecute and too concerned with appeasing public opinion, particularly liberal critics of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His defense of these men resonated with much of the conservative base, who viewed the pardons as acts of justice for heroes who were scapegoated for the failure of the U.S. military's strategy in the region.

“He risked his life by serving overseas to protect the rights of all of us here at home,” Republican Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina said of Gallagher during a rally outside the Capitol in March 2019, calling on authorities called for Gallagher to be released from custody before his trial “in light of his courage, his patriotism and his rights as an American citizen.”

The Washington post reported at the time that Hegseth had personally lobbied Trump on behalf of service members, often using his Fox News platform to appeal and argue that the military was tainted by political correctness. “You teach someone to fight and kill the enemy, then they kill the enemy in a way that someone doesn't like, and then we put them in prison,” Hegseth argued on his Fox News show in November 2019.

His defense of these men drew criticism from military leaders and former officials, who argued that his actions undermined the integrity of the military justice system and set a dangerous precedent for presidential interference. Critics warned that such high-profile interventions by a sitting president would undermine the military justice system and encourage troops to disregard the chain of command or engage in reckless behavior without fear of punishment. Others expressed concerns that such interventions could damage the U.S. military's global reputation, particularly among allies that maintain strict standards of conduct in armed conflict.

Democratic Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, then the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said at a hearing in 2019 that he was “deeply concerned by the President's recent interference in war crimes cases.” He continued: “President Trump's disregard for our military justice system risks undermining the trust of our service members, the rule of law and their chain of command, especially those brave enough to bring allegations of war crimes to light and testify against them.” Teammates.”

The decision to appoint Hegseth as defense minister creates the conditions for a possible conflict with the military leadership. Last week, Hegseth indicated he would push for the firing of senior military leaders who he said were not sufficiently supportive of Trump's agenda, and said in a podcast interview that he might target Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown to eliminate diversity and inclusion programs at the agency. “First of all, you have to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth told podcast host Shawn Ryan about reforming the military. “Every general who was involved, every general, admiral, whatever, who was involved in any DEI/Woke shit needs to go.” He also said in the podcast interview that “we shouldn't have women in combat roles.” and claimed that men were more capable of the job. “It didn’t make us more effective, it didn’t make us deadlier, it didn’t make fighting more complicated,” he said. “Give me a female pilot all day, I have no problem with that.”

Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq War veteran and founder of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Association, called Hegseth “undoubtedly the least qualified SecDef candidate in American history … and the most overtly political.”

Hegseth could face a difficult confirmation in the Senate, even though Republicans hold the majority. “A Fox & Friends Weekend co-host is not qualified to be Secretary of Defense,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote on social media. “I lead the Senate Military Personnel Panel. All three of my brothers served in uniform. I respect each of our military members. The election of Donald Trump will make us less safe and must be rejected.”