Navy moving ahead with unprecedented review of the JAG Corps

[Peter1469]

Navy moving ahead with unprecedented review of the JAG Corps

With a series of ethical lapses, most likely unknown to most civilians, the Chief of Naval Operations has ordered the largest comprehensive review of the Navy's legal service in history. Not only did the prosecution illegally "bug" the defense's emails in the Gallagher case, but The Judge Advocate General of the Navy has been accused of undue command influence in another SEAL case.

After months of high-profile legal gaffes, the head of the Navy has ordered what officials are calling an operational pause for the Navy’s legal community.


The largest and most comprehensive review of the Navy’s legal system kicked off the day after President Donald Trump publicly admonished the JAG community for awarding medals to the lawyers who were responsible for the failed prosecution of Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward Gallagher.


“Not only did they lose the case, they had difficulty with respect to information that may have been obtained from opposing lawyers and for giving immunity in a totally incompetent fashion,” Trump tweeted on July 31.

I have directed the Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer & Chief of Naval Operations John Richardson to immediately withdraw and rescind the awards.”


The next day Richardson directed vice chief Adm. Robert Burke to conduct the largest comprehensive review of the Navy’s legal services in its history, USNI News understands. Burke’s mandate from Richardson said, “recent events indicate a need to review the leadership and performance of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps.
The cases that prompted the look go beyond Gallagher’s murder trial and span the last four years.


The 60-day look will probe individual JAG training, unit-level training, organization of the JAG Corps, and the officers’ career paths.

It will also put a focus on legal advice lawyers give their commanders “with a particular focus on consistent delivery of the complete spectrum of legally available options with a risk-analyzed operationally informed legal assessment.”


In particular, officials singled out the unlawful command influence (UCI) from senior JAGs over the case of Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Keith Barry. Barry was convicted of a rape charge in 2015, but the conviction was overturned by a military appellate court when it found that the Navy’s top lawyer, Vice Adm. James Crawford, had pressured officials on the outcome of the case.

[Common]

The lead prosecutor in Gallaghers case has been demoted and removed

[Peter1469]

The lead prosecutor in Gallaghers case has been demoted and removed

He will likely lose his bar license and be discharged from the Navy.

[Standing Wolf]

Violations of law or military regulations should be dealt with harshly, but it would be a mistake to politicize any aspect of the system by punishing those who merely take the politically unpopular side of a case because it is their duty to do so.

[Peter1469]

Violations of law or military regulations should be dealt with harshly, but it would be a mistake to politicize any aspect of the system by punishing those who merely take the politically unpopular side of a case because it is their duty to do so.

Of course. That has not happened. And the issues good well before the Gahllagher case. The actual TGAJ (highest ranking lawyer) was found to commit the offense of unlawful command influence in other cases.