With Fox News, a controversial Navy SEAL had president’s ear
The network helped burnish the image of an Iraq vet accused of multiple war crimes.
The extraordinary interventions by the most powerful man in the country essentially made Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Edward R. Gallagher, who was convicted of posing with the body of a deceased Islamic State fighter, untouchable, observers said.
Richard V. Spencer, who was fired as Navy secretary, wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post that it’s irregular for top military leaders to get involved in personnel matters like the Gallagher case.
“Normally, military justice works best when senior leadership stays far away,” he wrote. “A system that prevents command influence is what separates our armed forces from others.”
Gallagher was charged with killing a wounded teenage Islamic State fighter during a deployment to Iraq in 2017. Several of his Navy SEAL teammates reported their platoon chief for that death and for shooting Iraqi civilians — charges on which Gallagher was acquitted in July.
He was convicted of appearing in photos with the fighter’s corpse and was sentenced to four months in the brig and a reduction in rank.
At key points in Gallagher’s case, the president showed he had his back.
“President Trump involved himself in the case almost from the start,” Spencer wrote, adding that Trump called him twice before Gallagher’s trial began. Trump ordered Gallagher released from confinement in March.
Defense Department officials found themselves pushing against a narrative the president had gleaned from Fox News, that the accused was a hero the Navy was persecuting, according to a Washington Post report.
“I came to believe that Trump’s interest in the case stemmed partly from the way the defendant’s lawyers and others had worked to keep it front and center in the media,” Spencer wrote.
On Nov. 15, after Gallagher’s conviction, Trump restored the SEAL’s rank to chief.
Finally, late last week, Trump ordered the Navy to drop plans for a review board that was to decide if Gallagher would remain a SEAL and keep his SEAL trident pin. On Sunday, Spencer was forced to resign.
The Navy this week announced that all review boards planned for Gallagher and three of his senior officers were canceled. The Navy said Gallagher would be allowed to retire a SEAL, ending a saga spanning almost two years.
Through it all, a team of people, including some of Gallagher’s family members, lawyers, politicians and TV pundits, worked to capture Trump’s attention for the case.
A senior Navy official in San Diego told the Union-Tribune on Monday that the president was making decisions on “bad” information from people on Fox News.
Yet, Timothy Parlatore, one of Gallagher’s attorneys, told the Union-Tribune that the president was getting good information from diverse sources, including Fox News, allowing him to make better decisions. Parlatore said it was military leaders like Spencer, the former Navy secretary, who were giving Trump bad information from a tainted investigation.
“For a commander, whether it’s the president or whoever, to make a decision they need to have all the information — not just the slanted position of people under him with an agenda.... If you only get your news from one source, you’re not getting the full story,” Parlatore said about the prosecution’s story about Gallagher.
In January, the day of Gallagher’s arraignment in San Diego, his brother, Sean Gallagher, appeared on “Fox & Friends.” It was to be the first of many such appearances by Gallagher’s family members.
After Gallagher was arraigned in San Diego, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine) issued a statement calling on Trump to intervene.
“Due to [the] verifiable political nature of the Navy’s justice system, I believe that Chief Gallagher’s matter needs to be taken away from the Navy and President Trump himself needs to personally review and dismiss this case, taking an American hero out of a prison cell and back on the front lines where he belongs,” Hunter said in a Jan. 4 statement.
On Jan. 9, Hunter sent a letter directly to Trump on Gallagher’s behalf and spent the following weeks calling on Navy leaders to release the SEAL from the brig at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.
At least eight times from January to March, members of Gallagher’s family, Hunter or host Pete Hegseth discussed Gallagher’s case on Fox News, framing the story as the persecution of a hero.
On March 30, via tweet, Trump ordered Gallagher released from the Miramar brig. This was about the time that Parlatore joined the Gallagher defense team. Parlatore was a New York-based lawyer who had represented Hegseth in another matter.
Advocates for Gallagher, including Hunter, Parlatore and Hegseth, discussed the case at least eight more times on Fox News in April and May.
On May 21, The Daily Beast reported that Hegseth had been lobbying Trump for Gallagher not just on TV but also in private conversations.
The next day, one of Trump’s attorneys, New York-based Marc Mukasey, officially joined Gallagher’s defense team.
In July, Gallagher was acquitted of all but one charge, and Trump tweeted his congratulations.
The day after his acquittal, Gallagher granted Hegseth and “Fox & Friends” an exclusive interview.
The campaign on Fox News continued, despite the end of the court-martial.
Parlatore went on “Fox & Friends” to decry the planned trident review boards, calling the plan to review Gallagher, ordered by Rear Adm. Collin Green, the move of a “coward.”
On Sunday, after conflicting accounts emerged about alleged threats by Spencer and Green to resign over Trump’s interference, Gallagher appeared again on “Fox & Friends” with Hegseth. He thanked Trump for his intervention.
Hegseth gave Gallagher the opportunity to speak directly to the president.
“I just want to retire with all the honors that I earned,” Gallagher said. “I don’t know how many times I’ve thanked the president, he keeps stepping in, doing the right thing.”
Not long after, Defense Secretary Mark Esper fired Spencer. On Monday, he told reporters the president ordered him to let Gallagher keep his trident.
