However, he was ultimately spared all punishment after President Trump intervened in November and restored his rank.
Gallagher was ultimately acquitted by a military jury in July of murder charges but was demoted after being convicted of posing for a photo with the ISIS captive’s body. In the leaked video interviews, SEAL Team 7 members described seeing Gallagher targeting civilians, including a 12-year-old child, and fatally stabbing a wounded captive with a hunting knife. “You could tell he was perfectly OK with killing anybody that was moving,” Special Operator 1st Class Corey Scott, a medic in the platoon, told investigators during Gallagher’s trial on war crimes, including murder, according to the report. They have never spoken publicly about the case, which has divided the elite fighting force known for its secrecy.A group of Navy SEALS who accused their platoon leader of war crimes have spoken out in never-before-seen footage obtained by The New York Times.Īccording to a trove of leaked Navy materials, members of SEAL Team 7 described Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher in grim terms, calling him “freaking evil,” “toxic” and a “psychopath.” The men who worked with Chief Gallagher and turned him in described how their chief seemed to love killing, how he targeted women and children and boasted that "burqas were flying". It shows members of Chief Gallagher's SEAL Team 7 Alpha Platoon speaking to agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service about his conduct in sometimes emotional interviews. The footage published on Friday was part of a trove of confidential Navy investigative materials that The New York Times obtained about the prosecution of Chief Gallagher, who was accused of battlefield misconduct in Iraq. The case also led to the Navy secretary's firing over his handling of the matter. Chief Gallagher's war crimes case earlier this year gained national attention in the US after President Donald Trump intervened on his behalf despite strong objections from Pentagon leaders who said the President's move could damage the integrity of the military judicial system.
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