Back in October, four members of the U.S. military died when they were ambushed while on patrol in the West African nation of Niger. One of those was Army Sgt. La David Johnson and his family says officials with the Department of Defense have repeatedly lied to them regarding the incident.
Appearing on CNN Monday morning, Johnson’s mother, Cowanda Jones-Johnson, said she has been given seven different versions of exactly how her son died. The original version the military provided her suggested that Johnson had “possibly” been captured by Islamic militants.
Later, the DOD informed Ms. Jones-Johnson that her son had not been captured, but they were unable to explain why it took them 48 hours to find his body after he disappeared. The inconsistencies have led Jones-Johnson to wonder what exactly the military might be hiding:
“I want the truth. If they had told us the truth behind the situation from day one, we wouldn’t be sitting here because we would have closure, and we can move on from this. But there’s no closure because, it’s like my mom always used to tell us, ‘If you tell one lie, you have to tell so many lies to cover up that one little lie.'”
Richshama Johnson, Johnson’s sister, told host Alisyn Camerota that the Army hasn’t given the family any updates or briefings on Sgt. Johnson’s death and the investigation of what happened in Niger. Instead, they’ve been forced to try and glean details from postings on social media.
Considering the Sgt. Johnson made the ultimate sacrifice for his country, and it seems the least the military could do is tell his family the truth. Unless, of course, the DOD and Trump administration is trying to hide something about the mission Sgt. Johnson and his comrades were on that night in Niger. This White House has shown a willingness to lie about anything and everything, even when the truth would better serve them.
Featured Image Via Screengrab
