Former Army JAG lawyer goes off on Trump for planning to pardon war criminals

Kirschner

President Donald Trump is planning to celebrate Memorial Day by pardoning American soldiers who committed and were found guilty of war crimes, resulting in former Army JAG lawyer Glenn Kirschner ripping him a new one on Twitter Saturday night.

The New York Times reports that Trump is requesting paperwork necessary to issue pardons to soldiers accused or convicted of being war criminals in an effort to use them as props on a holiday honoring those who died fighting for our country the right way.

Kirschner, who served as an Army JAG lawyer and is a former longtime federal prosecutor, expressed his utter disgust for Trump’s plan on Twitter by explaining what it takes to prosecute a soldier for a war crime, even using the conviction of several members of Blackwater during the Iraq War as an example.

Scarier still, Kirschner went on to posit that Trump may be trying to curry favor from the military in the hopes that our soldiers will back him in 2020 should he refuse to leave office if he loses to his Democratic opponent.

Another Twitter user pointed out that Trump’s scheme sends a message that the Geneva Convention doesn’t matter, which means both sides in any war would ignore it and commit war crimes against American civilians and soldiers and vice versa.

The action Trump plans to take should outrage Americans across the country regardless of party affiliation. War criminals do not deserve pardons for their crimes. Wearing a United States uniform does not exempt anyone from obeying the rule of law. These criminals were tried and convicted and their convictions should stand.

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