Former Navy SEALs say they are “relieved” Special Warfare Chief Edward Gallagher was acquitted Tuesday on charges of committing war crimes.
Gallagher’s case sharply divided the SEAL community between old-school veterans who supported the chief and younger members who made the accusations. A jury of five Marines and two sailors found Gallagher, 40, not guilty on six of the seven charges that stemmed from the accusations, including murder and attempted murder. He was found guilty of unlawfully posing for a photograph with a corpse.
Eli Crane, who served three deployments as a SEAL, told the Washington Examiner the verdict was good news for Gallagher and his family, saying, “I’m relieved to see a friend and someone who has sacrificed a ton for our country walk away as a free man.”
Brad Bailey, a former SEAL and president of the Navy SEALs Fund, said he hopes the verdict will help reunite the community.
“Our stance from the very beginning of this has been that Eddie needs to have a fair trial, and we’re going to stand by him no matter what because he’s our brother,” Bailey told the Washington Examiner. “We understand that it’s a very contentious accusation and one that really deeply divided our community. And I hope that everyone can learn a lot from this on both sides, and we can get back to taking care of business.”
Fellow SEALs accused Gallagher of stabbing an injured, teenage Islamic State fighter in the neck while deployed to Iraq in 2017. Gallagher took pictures with the corpse and texted them to fellow SEALs.
“Good story behind this. Got him with my hunting knife,” Gallagher said in one message.
Gallagher’s teammates said he would also recklessly shoot at civilians, and prosecutors said he threatened to take them all down with him if they reported him.
For the unlawful photograph, the jury on Wednesday sentenced Gallagher to four months imprisonment and a reduction in pay grade from E-7 to E-6. They also ordered him to pay $2,697 per month for two months. Gallagher will receive time served for the jail sentence due to his pretrial confinement.
While Bailey was pleased with the outcome, he is critical of how Navy prosecutors and investigators handled the case.
“This is going to showcase the corruption that is NCIS,” Bailey said of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. “The public can now see the NCIS needs oversight, they need rules, and they can’t just decide who is guilty and who is not and prosecute people before they even get to trial.”
President Trump was reportedly considering a pardon for Gallagher earlier this year but decided to let the trial proceed first.
It was revealed in May that Navy prosecutors had embedded email tracking software in their correspondence with Gallagher’s defense team. Navy Capt. Aaron Rugh, the judge who oversaw the case, dismissed lead prosecutor Cmdr. Christopher Czaplak and released Gallagher from pretrial confinement in response to the revelation. Lead defense attorney Timothy Parlatore told the Washington Examiner he plans to file an ethics complaint against Czaplak.
Gallagher told Fox News Channel host Pete Hegseth on Wednesday that despite the charges, he wouldn’t trade his time with the SEALs “for anything.”
“I wouldn’t give back the 20 years that I have done. I’ve been able to serve with some of the most honorable men. I’ve had to watch my friends be buried in the ground,” Gallagher said on the network. “No, I wouldn’t give back my past 20 years for anything, and I would do it again. I would continue to do it if I could.”
