Day 849: NYT: Trump looking into pardoning war criminals

Donald Trump campaigned on the idea that waterboarding — considered a war crime by most nations — did not go far enough when it came to questioning suspected terrorists. Now, Trump is looking to pardon some who went much farther than waterboarding, according to a New York Times report.

While the pardon process traditionally takes months, it appears that Trump wants to make a spectacle by announcing pardons on or near Memorial Day. And the people he’s looking at pardoning have been accused of heinous and cowardly crimes, including shooting unarmed civilians.

One request is for Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher of the Navy SEALs, who is scheduled to stand trial in the coming weeks on charges of shooting unarmed civilians and killing an enemy captive with a knife while deployed in Iraq.

The others are believed to include the case of a former Blackwater security contractor recently found guilty in the deadly 2007 shooting of dozens of unarmed Iraqis; the case of Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, the Army Green Beret accused of killing an unarmed Afghan in 2010; and the case of a group of Marine Corps snipers charged with urinating on the corpses of dead Taliban fighters.

Navy SEALs who served with Chief Gallagher told authorities he indiscriminately shot at civilians, gunning down a young woman in a flowered hijab and an unarmed old man. They also said he stabbed a teenage captive, then bragged about it in text messages. His trial is set to start at the end of this month. If convicted, he faces life in prison. He has pleaded not guilty and denies all charges.

People who receive pardons have traditionally paid a debt to society and express remorse for their actions. Sometimes they’re found guilty and face mandatory sentences when the nature of their crimes don’t match their punishment.

Trump, however, is seeking to have people that have been convicted and failed to show any contrition get pardons. He’s also looking to pardon those that have been accused of terrible crimes and are set to go on trial.

Pardoning those accused or convicted of war crimes is becoming a pattern for Trump. Earlier this month, Trump pardoned Michaell Behenna, who was convicted of killing an unarmed detainee after driving him into the Iraqi desert.

849 days in, 613 to go

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