DIVIDED LOYALTIES

Navy SEALs on Tape: Edward Gallagher Is ‘Freaking Evil’

Fighter cleared by Trump accused in video testimony by former colleagues. “I was just thinking, like, this is the most disgraceful thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” said one.

The New York Times has obtained video interviews and private group text messages recorded with the colleagues of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, who was accused of war crimes, including murder. Gallagher was acquitted by a military jury in July of all but a single relatively minor charge, and was cleared of all punishment in November by President Trump. In one video of questioning by Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents, a SEAL broke the force’s self-imposed code of silence to describe Gallagher as “freaking evil,” while another says: “You could tell he was perfectly OK with killing anybody that was moving.” “I was just thinking, like, this is the most disgraceful thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” one said of the stabbing death of a sedated prisoner. Gallagher has insisted that the charges against him were concocted by six disgruntled SEALs in his platoon who could not meet his high standards and wanted to force him out.