Thursday, May 24, 2018

Why was Harvey Rishikof fired (and was it unlawful command influence)?

Col. James L. Pohl
Military Commission Judge 
The Miami Herald's Carol Rosenberg reports here on an order by a Guantanamo military commission judge requiring Pentagon lawyer William Castle and former convening authority Harvey Rishikof to testify in July on a defense unlawful command influence motion. Excerpt:
[Col. James L.] Pohl also ordered the Pentagon to provide the job descriptions of Rishikof and his legal adviser, Gary Brown, who was also fired and the Dec. 13, 2017 memo that supposedly discussed proposing guilty pleas as well as three other documents related to Rishikof's job.

During a May hearing, Pohl openly wondered whether, as a Pentagon appointee, Rishikof served at the pleasure of the secretary of defense or, because there was no time-limit on his hiring, it was a lifetime appointment "absent personal misconduct," like a federal judge. . . .
A separate defense motion seeks dismissal of the 9/11 case based on tweets from President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review has ground to a halt since the court's non-disqualified members have fallen below the minimum of three required by the Military Commissions Act.

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