A Marine Corps officer jailed after releasing a series of Facebook videos criticizing military leadership for the botched withdrawal of Afghanistan, as well as a series of scathing posts lambasting “hypocrite” former presidents and generals, now sits in a type of solitary confinement with no phone, visitors, books, or even paper, his parents told the Washington Examiner.
“I anticipated it. I ran the gamut of rage to tears,” said Cathy Scheller upon learning that her son Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller was arrested Monday. “I have taken up his cause. I will do everything I can to make sure this doesn’t disappear. I am very proud of him for standing for the service members and asking for accountability.”
Scheller was three years away from retirement when a suicide bomber killed 13 service members during the Afghanistan airlifts. This prompted him to release a now-viral video that accused leadership of lacking accountability for the disastrous reaction to the fall of Kabul at the hands of the Taliban.
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He voluntarily resigned and forfeited his retirement after the first video, saying it was worth it to speak the truth. Military leaders apparently weighed their options, as Scheller wasn’t immediately arrested but was only ordered not to communicate on social media.
“Effective immediately upon your receipt below, you are hereby ordered to refrain from posting any and all material, in any form without exception, to any social media. In this context, the term ‘social media’ shall be construed very broadly to include any medium by which you may share information with groups of people…” Lt. Col. Scheller was told, according to a Sept. 25 Facebook post.
In that post, Scheller asked his followers to abandon divisiveness and fear before critiquing several generals and each of the former presidents except for Joe Biden. Scheller claimed former President Donald Trump “divided the country,” Barack Obama was “weak in any intestinal fortitude,” and Bill Clinton was “morally bankrupt. This includes his wife.”
His post violated a direct order, and Scheller prepared himself for arrest at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina, where he is based. His parents received one phone call from him Tuesday, and his only words were, “Can you call my attorney?”
“A week ago, they issued a gag order. He was very aware that he broke that gag order, and he told his commanding officer to have the [police] there at 8 a.m. Monday to arrest him,” said Scheller’s father, Stuart Scheller Sr. “Stuart is a man of incredible principle. He’s a highly decorated war hero. He is a warrior still fighting for his Marines and veterans.”
Scheller Sr. thought it was ironic his son would be in jail the day Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Generals Mark Milley and Frank McKenzie would be grilled on the Afghanistan debacle by the Senate.
“They decided to throw my son in jail to shut him up,” Scheller Sr. said. “Stuart didn’t murder anyone. Stuart didn’t do drugs or sexually offend anyone. He spoke the truth and asked for accountability.”
Cathy Scheller said her son — who did tours in Beirut, Iraq, and Afghanistan — worked with a non-profit organization to combat veteran suicide and worried the latest military deaths would be detrimental.
“He knew if there was not accountability with the generals, there would be more suicides,” Cathy Scheller said. “People would come forward and say, ‘Was it worth it?’”
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Scheller’s first hearing is on Thursday, according to his mother. The family has created a donation page at the Pipe Hitter Foundation to cover attorney fees. So far, more than 2,100 people have donated more than $165,000. His Facebook page has more than 111,000 followers.
“In his 17 years of service, I have never heard him make a disparaging remark about any president, past or present,” Scheller’s mother said. “I believe this outburst came as his frustration mounted over this entire debacle in Afghanistan and his call for accountability. Even then, he could not bring himself to speak ill of a standing president.”
