Charles “Cully” Stimson’s last stint at the Pentagon did not turn out so well — he resigned over a comment about Guantanamo Bay detainees — but it did not seem likely Wednesday to derail his nomination by President Trump to return to the building as a top lawyer.
The Senate Armed Services Committee was poised to move Stimson’s nomination as Navy general counsel to a floor vote after he again apologized for making an “emotional” statement a decade ago about lawyers for detainees suspected of terrorism.
“I think that you’ve paid a price. I think that you acknowledged the mistake, something that’s a rare occasion on this side of the dais, and so I think you cleared it up for the record,” said Sen. John McCain, the committee chairman. “I also think we need to have you move on [to confirmation.]”
In January 2007, Stimson — who was then the Pentagon official in charge of military detainees — said during a radio interview he was dismayed top U.S. law firms were representing Guantanamo prisoners and urged corporate clients to cut ties.
He wrote an apology published in the Washington Post but resigned a month later amid the controversy.
“I made a boneheaded statement, quite frankly it was an emotional response generated by my loss of my 295 colleagues who … were killed on 9/11 at the World Trade Center,” Stimson said Wednesday.
He said the statements in 2007 do not represent his professional views and he has admitted his mistake.
“I was raised by my parents to admit a mistake and move on,” Stimson said. “I think in the last 10 years I’ve learned that, and if I’m confirmed and I make another mistake, I’ll admit it and try to move on from that too.”
The top Democrat on Armed Services, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said he was satisfied with Stimson’s testimony but urged him to be a role model at the Pentagon.
“I think going forward your role is not only just as a lawyer but as a leader,” Reed said.
One of the things the U.S. military fights for and protects is “the right for unpopular people to have a fair hearing in court,” he said.
