Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher’s lawyer on Sunday accused Navy leaders of plotting to strip away his client’s Trident insignia.
In a letter to SEAL Rear Adm. Collin Green, lawyer Tim Parlatore accused Navy Special Warfare Command of attempting to get a “pound of flesh” from Gallagher, despite his being found not guilty of several war crimes in July. Gallagher was found guilty of taking a picture with the corpse of an Islamic State fighter he was accused of murdering.
“The sole offense of conviction, posing in a photo, involved many members of his platoon, yet we have been told that you and others are conspiring to take the Trident of only one participant in that photo — the only one who has already been punished for this offense,” Parlatore wrote in the letter, which was obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Gallagher, 40, was accused of stabbing the injured teenage fighter to death and shooting indiscriminately at civilians while on deployment in Iraq in 2017. The lawyer’s accusation is the latest in a saga that has included claims of prosecutorial misconduct, a shocking trial admission, and the involvement of President Trump.
Parlatore told the Washington Examiner his client is being targeted because he challenged the Navy’s command.
“That’s just pure retaliation,” Parlatore said. “There’s no reason to take his Trident other than to embarrass him.”
Navy Special Warfare Command did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment by press time.
The Navy SEAL Trident, also known as the Special Warfare Insignia, is worn only by those who complete Basic Underwater Demolitions and SEAL Qualification Training. Established in 1978, the gold badge features an eagle clutching a trident, anchor, and flintlock pistol. It is considered a sacred badge of honor inside the SEAL community.
A SEAL losing his Trident is a soul-crushing experience, said former SEAL Brad Bailey, who saw some of his former teammates lose their insignias.
“It’s devastating,” Bailey told the Washington Examiner. “You’re losing your whole identity.”
Because of their significance, SEALs are stripped of their Tridents in only the most severe circumstances, though leaders have threatened to pull them for other reasons in recent months. The SEALs who accused Gallagher of war crimes were warned that their Tridents could be revoked if they reported him, according to the New York Times. A complaint filed by two former SEAL Team 7 leaders in September accused Master Chief Petty Officer William King, Green’s top enlisted adviser, of threatening to pull the Tridents of any SEALs who “played lawyer games.”
Green and King have worked to clean up the SEAL community’s image in the wake of the so-called Gallagher effect and several other scandals that have rocked the community in recent years.
Bailey, who sits on the board of the Navy SEALs Fund, a nonprofit organization that aided Gallagher’s defense, said targeting Gallagher’s Trident would be “punitive at this point” and will only rally others to Gallagher’s defense.
“I think the community will probably gather around him,” Bailey said.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday recently upheld a ruling to demote Gallagher, though Parlatore said he expects Trump will restore him to the rank of chief petty officer.
