Convicted Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher Meets With Trump at Mar-a-Lago
Retired Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher met with President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at their Mar-a-Lago resort over the weekend. Gallagher and his wife Andrea posted pictures of the meeting on Instagram, saying they gave the first couple a present and thanked the president for defending Gallagher throughout his war crimes trial.
Trump prominently defended Gallagher throughout 2019 as the SEAL faced a trial for war crimes.
Gallagher was acquitted this year for stabbing an injured, captive ISIS fighter to death during a deployment to Iraq in 2017. Gallagher was court-martialed for this and other accusations of shooting civilians during his deployment, and while he was found not guilty of these criminal charges, Gallagher was convicted for posing for a photo with the dead body of an ISIS fighter.
Trump showered praise on Gallagher throughout the case, restoring his rank after he was demoted for his actions, and ordering the Navy to let Gallagher keep his Trident pin as a symbol of his status. Ousted Navy Secretary Richard Spencer expressed disapproval for Trump’s involvement in the Gallagher case, and Spencer was fired by Defense Secretary Mark Esper after secretly meeting with the president to push back on his intervention with the disciplinary actions in motion at the time.
