Editor’s Update:

After this article was published, Timothy Parlatore, Chief Gallagher’s lawyer, contacted SOFREP about some factual errors in the NYT article — which we had quoted.

With respect to the stabbing incident, Parlatore said that SO1 Corey Scott didn’t change his testimony on the stand. Additionally, Chief Gallagher’s lawyer stated that SO2 Ivan Villanueva, another SEAL witness, had said in the initial NCIS interview that Chief Gallagher “stabbed him on the side of the abdomen. He never saw him stab him in the neck. And that that wound was post-mortem.” 

Speaking about the NCIS, Parlatore said that the special agents told the SEALs that they were going to issue them source numbers and that neither their names nor their recorded testimonies were ever going to go public.

 

This is the story that will not go away anytime soon. Eddie Gallagher, the Navy SEAL who was court-martialed and acquitted of murder, is once again back in the news. SEALs, who served under Gallagher in Alpha Platoon, SEAL Team 7 have described their former leader as “freaking evil” and said his leadership style was toxic. 

Gallagher was acquitted of the most serious charges with the exception of posing for a picture with a dead Islamic militant. While some may find that act distasteful, it hardly ranks him with the likes of Al Capone. The Navy still wanted their pound of flesh: it reduced him in rank and was going to kick him out of the SEALs. 

President Trump stepped in, restored his rank and forbid the Navy from booting Gallagher from the SEALs, thus allowing him to retire at his former rank and with his Trident. That caused an uproar in the Navy and Navy Secretary Richard Spenser threatened to resign over it. Never one to be outdone, Trump fired Spenser in November.