Friends -
We’re writing to see if you’d consider signing the latest VoteVets petition: The House Armed Services Committee should investigate Donald Trump’s interference in the Eddie Gallagher case.
Here’s the rundown of why we think it’s so important for our team to weigh in on this particular issue today:
We’re 700,000 members strong and that’s why we have the power to speak up and demand better of our government and military justice process. But we need you to sign on today.
Read the full letter below and then sign your name today if you agree that the House Armed Services Committee should move immediately to hold hearings to investigate Donald Trump’s involvement with the Eddie Gallagher case.
The Honorable Adam Smith
Chairman, House Armed Services Committee
2216 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Chairman Smith,
As the nation's largest progressive veterans and military families organization with more than 700,000 members nationwide, we are writing with great concern over the events surrounding the case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher. With President Trump's intervention and the ensuing chaos at the highest levels of Pentagon leadership, we believe the current situation warrants a House Armed Services Committee hearing to provide needed transparency and restore confidence in our military's justice system.
From September 2018 to July 2019, U.S. Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Edward "Eddie" Gallagher faced a court martial for a series of war crimes and related offenses. On July 2, 2019, Chief Gallagher was convicted of posing for a photo with the body of a dead Islamic State fighter. Facing a demotion and other Navy administrative procedures relevant to the SEAL community, Chief Gallagher mounted a lobbying campaign that resulted in President Trump's direct intervention in the military justice process -- sparking chaos at the military's senior ranks and the ouster of Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer.
As we have learned from media reports, Navy Secretary Spencer and SEAL Commander Rear Admiral Collin Green strongly resisted President Trump's actions as threatening to the military's justice system and contrary to good order and discipline. It is unclear what role Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has played in this controversy, and whether he overruled senior military leadership in siding with President Trump and excusing Gallagher's conduct. There are also allegations involving various Fox News personalities and their influence on the President in this and other military-related situations-- meaning that Fox News commentators are directly interfering with our national security and military readiness.
We believe the current situation demands a thorough inquiry into President Trump's interference in the Gallagher case and the related actions of senior civilian and military leadership involved. The House Armed Services Committee should move immediately to hold a hearing with relevant witnesses from the White House, Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, and U.S. Special Operations community. The hearing should investigate the entire Gallagher matter, with particular focus on the following:
By holding a hearing into this matter, the House Armed Services Committee can deliver accountability and begin restoring confidence in our military justice system, as well as uphold the order and discipline on which our military is built, and which Donald Trump has undermined.
Our service members and their families -- and all who have worn the uniform deliver accountability for the American people and begin to restore the confidence of our servicemembers and those watching worldwide.
We also must address why we are writing this letter to you, and cc’ing only the Majority Members of your committee, and Minority Members of the Senate Committee on Armed Services.
In ordinary times, we would be writing your counterpart in the Senate, Chairman James Inhofe, as well as your committee’s Ranking Member, Rep. Mac Thornberry, with full confidence that they would put party aside and do their due diligence to get to the bottom of this matter – as both Armed Services Committees have traditionally done.
However, it has become beyond apparent during the recent impeachment process that the Republican Majority in the Senate, and Republican Minority in the House, has become completely corrupted, abdicated its Constitutional role as a check on excesses of the Executive Branch, and has instead decided to act as the chief defender and deflector of all efforts to hold Donald Trump accountable.
From Senator Inhofe, who proudly cosponsored a resolution attacking House Democrats for investigating the Ukraine Bribery Affair, to Senator Marsha Blackburn, who disgustingly smeared Purple Heart recipient, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, on Twitter, the Senate Armed Services Committee Republican Majority simply cannot be trusted to put country or the military over Donald Trump.
Similarly, your Ranking Member has said Donald Trump shouldn’t be impeached for the Ukraine Bribery Affair because what Trump did is what he says and does all the time. The minority members of your committee, all the way down to Rep. Elise Stefanik, have decided that their role in Congress is to block investigations into the truth, and defend Trump from being exposed, at any cost.
Therefore, we can only turn to you, and the majority on the committee, to get to the bottom of this matter. We simply cannot trust that the Republican Minority in the House, or Majority in the Senate, will put the needs of the military above the protection of Donald Trump. It is therefore, sadly and unfortunately, a waste of our time to make an appeal to them to do their jobs.
Thank you for your attention, and we stand ready to help you with this matter.
Sincerely,
VoteVets.org
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