The Wells firing and prosecutorial independence

LTG (r) Chuck Pede

Lieutenant General Chuck Pede, retired Judge Advocate General of the Army, has this guest post on Major General Charlie Dunlap's Lawfire concerning the Secretary of the Army's firing of Brigadier General Warren Wells as lead special trial counsel on the basis of a 10-year-old email sent when he was serving as a supervisory defense counsel.

Comments on the firing and Gen. Pede's post are welcome. (In accordance with Global Military Justice Reform Rule 1, real names, please.) To kick things off, the Editor will offer a couple of thoughts. 

First, this firing does indeed raise a question about the independence of the STCs. This was totally unnecessary. With a stroke, Secretary Christine E. Wormuth struck a blow that seems most unfair, and, worse yet, casts a cloud over the new and better prosecutorial system that many people labored long, hard and wisely to achieve in order to foster improved public confidence in the administration of justice. Her action is far more destructive of that confidence than Gen. Wells’s decade-old email ever was.

That said, I have to disagree with Gen. Pede's reference to "the 'pre-baked' design of the new military justice system forced on the Services two years ago." To say something was "forced" on the services is to reject the very notion of civilian control of the military. Gen. Pede was one of those who thought the change was a bad idea, and I am concerned that he and others who shared his view will now seize on Ms. Wormuth's ill-advised action as a reason to roll back what Congress did. Watch for further signs of irredentism. For her part, Ms. Wormuth may have grasped defeat from the jaws of victory.

Readers will also want to take a look at the Niagara of comments over at CAAFlog.