Critics ignore military justice failures in "60 Minutes" profile of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A "60 Minutes" profile of former Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher is attracting a lot of attention, as some critics accused the program of "glorifying a war criminal."
However, extensive Fox Nation coverage of Gallagher's cases suggests that there is much more to this story then the objections of CBS' detractors would suggest.
"We warn you it's a story of combat at its ugliest and military justice at its worst," said CBS News' David Martin introducing the segment on Sunday night, as he largely focused on the military's handling of Gallagher's case.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Gallagher was acquitted in 2019 of charges of premeditated murder in the death of a 19-year-old Islamic State fighter in Iraq in 2017, during his eighth deployment.
The jury found him not guilty after the prosecution's key witness, who was testifying under a grant of immunity, confessed on the stand that he -- not Gallagher -- killed the enemy fighter.
Gallagher was found guilty of posing with the corpse of the dead ISIS member, resulting in loss of rank and pay. President Donald Trump intervened, issuing an order reversing the sentence and restoring Gallagher's rank.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Yet, the Navy continued to go after Gallagher, attempting to strip him of his Trident pin, which is a symbol of a SEAL's service. The president stepped in again, and Gallagher ultimately kept his Trident.
In the "60 Minutes" piece, Martin highlighted how military prosecutors were pulled off the case over allegations of misconduct, namely by attempting to track the communications of Gallagher's legal defense team.
In an interview on Fox Nation in November, Sean Gallagher, Eddie's brother, raised serious concerns over the military prosecutors.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The prosecutors in Eddie's case spied on the defense team. They hid evidence," said Sean Gallagher on Fox Nation's "Deep Dive."
"The judge in our case had to fire the prosecutors weeks before trial. It was a failure of epic proportions, something that you wouldn't even think could happen in this country. And yet we lived through it."
Gallagher served nine months in prison, including time in solitary confinement, before his release.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Eddie never should have gone to trial," he continued. "If people had done their due diligence and investigators had done right and good work, they would have said that this is a farce of a case to begin with."
FOX NATION PANEL DEBATES FAIRNESS OF MILITARY JUSTICE SYSTEM
On Fox Nation's "Deep Dive," Eric Gang, founding partner at Gang and Associates, a law firm representing disabled veterans, said that Gallagher's case and others like it highlight larger concerns with the military justice system.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"What needs to be done is that the military needs to take a holistic approach towards examining these veterans and their conduct to understand what their state of mind may have been based upon their time, place and circumstances of service," said Gang.
Evan Hafer, a former Green Beret and co-founder of the veteran-run company Black Rifle Coffee, argued that more must be done to support war-fighters who have carried "the burden and the psychological and physical weight" of the global war on terror for "over almost two decades now."
"You cannot continue to deploy tens, if not hundreds of times for some of these guys. I know some of these guys, they're 50, 60-years old now. They've been at war their entire adult lives. They entered a combat zone at the age of 18. And they're still not done carrying the work of this country," said Hafer on "Deep Dive."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Also on "60 Minutes" on Sunday, Andrea Gallagher, wife of Eddie, described how dozens of Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents raided Gallagher's home, terrifying his children, who were home at the time.
EDDIE GALLAGHER'S WIFE: 'THEY RAIDED OUR HOUSE, THREW MY RIDES OUT ON THE STREET IN THEIR UNDERWEAR"
In an interview with Fox Nation host Tomi Lahren, she went into greater detail. "My son sees men on his porch with assault rifles, and this is what began a seven-hour raid. They pulled them out at gunpoint in their underwear and put them in the street."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We were betrayed by these individuals that were so zealous to execute this horrific act against my husband and take him down," she said. "All those years sacrificing my husband, every holiday, every birthday willingly giving our family to the cause to fight the war on terror. This is not something we took lightly. We've committed our entire life, our children's lives and our marriage to the cause."
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