A former Green Beret pardoned by President Trump will fight to regain his Special Forces tab despite the Army rejecting his request in December.
Retired Army Maj. Mathew Golsteyn was charged in 2018 with the murder of an alleged Taliban bomb maker while deployed to Afghanistan in February 2010. He admitted to the killing during a CIA polygraph in 2011, leading the Army to open an investigation. The Army stripped Golsteyn of his tab and Distinguished Service Cross in 2014. Golsteyn claimed that he killed the alleged bomb maker in a lawful ambush and burned his body to prevent spreading diseases. Trump pardoned Golsteyn on Nov. 15, 2019, while he was awaiting trial.
Lt. Gen. Francis Beaudette, commander of U.S. Army Special Operations Command, denied Maj. Mathew Golsteyn’s request to have his tab and Distinguished Service Cross reinstated on Dec. 3.
“I was on the call with President Trump, and he was clear that his intention was for everything concerning this case to be expunged — as if it never happened is what he said,” Golsteyn’s wife, Julie, told the Washington Examiner. “General Beaudette feels as though he has some moral high ground to judge Matt’s values. This coming from the man who helped orchestrate this sham through his own unlawful command, influence, and participation in using fake witnesses.”
Beaudette’s decision is not the final word on Golsteyn’s tab. Hence, the retired Green Beret’s continuing fight.
“We’ve heard so much about good order and discipline from Army leaders, but it appears it only applies to those poor souls below them,” Julie Golsteyn said.
The Army Board for Correction of Military Records will convene a panel to determine if Golsteyn’s decoration and tab should be reinstated. The board did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on the issue.
The Army’s decision could be at odds with the wishes of Trump, who overruled the Navy’s move to demote former Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher and pull his SEAL Trident last year. Gallagher was found not guilty of murdering an injured ISIS fighter last year but was convicted of unlawfully taking a picture with his corpse.
Gallagher’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, told the Washington Examiner that Golsteyn may not fare as well with his tab and award, given that the Army revoked them prior to pressing charges. “With Eddie, after he had been acquitted of the serious charges, they tried to take it away from him at that point, after the fact and retaliate. So very different from procedural,” Parlatore said.
Army Special Operations Command did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on Beaudette’s decision and the status of the investigation.
