President Donald Trump has eroded faith in the military justice system by interfering in the case of Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, Retired Adm. James Stavridis, the former Supreme Allied Commander at NATO, wrote on Tuesday.
Stavridis, who is now an operating executive at The Carlyle Group, wrote in an opinion piece for TIME on Tuesday that argued "Trump's interference on military justice is without precedent in American history, and represents a disturbing disagreement in civilian-military relations."
He added, "In the past, presidents have occasionally issued pardons to individuals adjudicated by military justice (as they do for civilians), but they have never reached into the process while events are still unfolding. Doing so is deeply unsettling to military leaders, showing a complete disregard and indeed a disrespect for the military system of justice, called the Uniformed Code of Military Justice."
Despite the convoluted series of events in the case involving the Navy JAG corps, "the bottom line was clear: a jury of Chief Gallagher's peers — mostly special forces operators — voted to convict him of posing with an enemy corpse and therefore strip him of his Chief's anchor."
Trump ordered that Gallagher's rank be restored and that he continue to be allowed to wear his Chief's anchor.
"This is puzzling because the case for removing the trident was strong ... Trump sailed into uncharted territory" by overruling military leaders on this matter, Stavridis wrote.
"It is hard to imagine any other president taking such action over such unified military advice.
"Everyone agrees Trump absolutely has the legal authority to take this course of action — but that doesn't make it right," Stavridis wrote.
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