Saturday, March 30, 2019

The commander in chief steps in

President Donald J. Trump
Bowing to pressure from congressional Republicans, President Donald J. Trump has ordered that a Navy SEAL facing a murder charge be moved to less restrictive pretrial confinement, American Military News reports.

Presidential involvement in such matters is highly unusual. In 1971, President Richard M. Nixon famously ordered First Lieutenant William L. Calley Jr. moved from the Ft. Benning stockade to house arrest. Calley had been convicted a few days earlier of the murder of Vietnamese civilians. Trial counsel Captain Aubrey M. Daniel III protested.

Mother Jones reminds us here of another current case of presidential interest in a court-martial.

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