Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting, who fired Space Force commander Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier last month for going on a podcast to promote a bestselling book he wrote on Marxism in the military, was himself harshly criticized several years ago by a military judge in an unprecedented order for violating the constitutional rights of a serviceman, the Washington Examiner reported on Tuesday.
According to court documents, Whiting violated the due process and rights to a fair trial of Air Force engineer Technical Sgt. Keith Snyder on three counts of rape that could have led to a lifetime prison sentence, starting in 2018.
Judge W. Shane Cohen, in an opinion dated Aug. 22, 2019, called Whiting out by his title as the one responsible for a situation in which "the government abdicated its obligations to the justice system."
Cohen said that "This court is left to conclude that the United States of America is neither committed to ensuring the accused gets a fair trial nor taking the steps necessary to provide the accused with the relevant discovery to mount his defense. This court is left with few conclusions other than the United States of America is not serious about meeting its legal obligations even when the law demands it."
Cohen stressed that reasonable doubt existed regarding Snyder's guilt in the case, which is the legal standard for a not guilty verdict.
"The outstanding evidence being sought by the defense is of central importance to mounting the accused’s affirmative defense, attacking the credibility of his three accusers, and demonstrating both his innocence and the reasonable doubt in the government’s case," Cohen wrote.
The charges against Snyder were based on a spliced covert tape recording from his Florida home created by a woman he had dated, identified as CP in court documents. The tape is illegal because Florida does not permit recordings without the permission of both parties.
Additional court evidence demonstrated that CP and two other women were jealous that Snyder did not go out with them exclusively, and they colluded to file rape reports with the military.
This evidence was submitted to the court by Snyder’s attorney. The prosecution, however, refused to issue a subpoena to collect the discovery from the women, which led Cohen to take the unusual step of dismissing the case with prejudice — meaning it cannot be filed again.
Whiting, who signed off on many of the court documents going ahead toward trial, did not respond to several requests for comment.
Retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, who said Cohen's order was unprecedented in its language and remedy, was also critical of Whiting’s decision to fire Lohmeier.
"We got here because we have a bunch of admirals and generals who just aren’t doing their job," Bolduc said. "They aren’t protecting the military, their organization, and more importantly, they aren’t protecting their people. They are allowing politics and this perverted version of diversity to be taught in the military."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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