The four-star admiral President Trump nominated to lead the Navy will retire instead after revealing that he maintained a professional relationship with a former public affairs officer who was reassigned after complaints of inappropriate behavior during a 2016 Navy Christmas party.
Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. William Moran was forced to withdraw his nomination, which the Senate confirmed in May, after Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said the relationship raised questions about Moran’s judgment.
Moran, the Navy’s second-highest-ranking officer, said in a statement he brought the situation to Spencer’s attention and decided to retire.
“I made this difficult decision based on an open investigation into the nature of some of my personal email correspondence over the past couple of years and for continuing to maintain a professional relationship with a former staff officer, now retired, who had while in uniform been investigated and held accountable over allegations of inappropriate behavior,” Moran said in his statement, released by the Navy Sunday night. “To be clear, my decision to maintain this relationship was in no way an endorsement or tacit approval of this kind of conduct. I understand how toxic it can be to any team when inappropriate behavior goes unrecognized and unchecked.”
He did not name the staff officer in question, but Navy sources confirm Moran was referring to retired Cmdr. Chris Servello, a public affairs adviser to the chief of naval operations who was removed from the position after complaints about his drinking and inappropriate fraternization with junior officers during and after a 2016 Christmas party held in the Pentagon.
Servello was wearing a partial Santa costume during the party and was accused of flirting and making passes at women while intoxicated. He reportedly slapped the buttocks of a civilian woman and, at an after-party, made “predatory” sexual advances toward subordinates.
He retired from the Navy after an investigation, but no charges were filed against him.
Spencer, the top civilian overseeing the Navy, said in his statement that Moran brought to his attention that “over the past two years he maintained a professional relationship with an individual who was held accountable and counseled for failing to meet the values and standards of the Naval profession,” which he said “caused me to call his judgment into question.”
Spencer said he will recommend a new candidate to acting Defense Secretary Mark Esper and the current chief of naval operations, Adm. John Richardson, will remain the top admiral for now.
Richardson, who is scheduled to retire in September, was reprimanded in October over his handling of the “bad Santa” incident. The Pentagon inspector general said that his delay in removing Servello from his personal staff “sent the wrong message about how seriously Adm. Richardson took the allegations of sexual harassment.”
Spencer defended Richardson then, saying he has done an “outstanding job” and “what he has learned from this experience he will pass on to the next generation of leaders, making the Navy even stronger.”
