WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump has pardoned a former U.S. Army commando set to stand trial next year in the killing of a suspected Afghan bomb-maker and a former Army lieutenant convicted of murder for ordering his men to fire upon three unarmed Afghans, killing two, the White House announced late Friday.
The commander in chief also ordered a promotion for a decorated Navy SEAL convicted of posing with a dead Islamic State extremist group captive in Iraq.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a written statement that the president is responsible for ensuring the law is enforced and that "deserving individuals" get second chances.
Trump said earlier this year that he was considering issuing the pardons.
"Some of these soldiers are people that have fought hard and long," he said in May. "You know, we teach them how to be great fighters, and then when they fight sometimes they get really treated very unfairly."
One of the pardons went to Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, a former Green Beret accused of killing a suspected bomb-maker during a 2010 deployment to Afghanistan. He has argued that the Afghan was a legal target because of his behavior at the time of the shooting.
The second pardon went to 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, who had been convicted of murder for ordering his soldiers to fire upon three unarmed Afghan men in July 2012, killing two. Lorance has served more than six years of a 19-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
Trump also ordered a promotion for Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Edward Gallagher, the Navy SEAL convicted of posing with a dead Islamic State captive in Iraq in 2017. Gallagher was in line for a promotion before he was prosecuted, but he lost that and was reduced in rank after the conviction.
One of Gallagher's lawyers, Timothy Parlatore, had said that the reduction in rank from chief petty officer would cost Gallagher up to $200,000 in retirement funds.
Gallagher ultimately was acquitted of the most serious charges against him. Grisham said the reinstatement of the promotion was "justified," given Gallagher's service.
"There are no words to adequately express how grateful my family and I are to our President -- Donald J. Trump -- for his intervention and decision," Gallagher said in a statement on Instagram. "I truly believe that we are blessed as a nation to have a Commander-in-Chief that stands up for our warfighters, and cares about how they and their families are treated."
Information for this article was contributed by Lolita C. Baldor of The Associated Press.
A Section on 11/16/2019