Trump Cools on Plans to Pardon Alleged War Criminals

[DonViejo]

Blowback from veterans groups caused the president to rethink the idea. At least for now.

Asawin Suebsaeng, Erin Banco
Updated 06.05.19 8:36AM ET / Published 06.05.19 4:58AM ET

After facing a torrent of pushback and harsh criticism from military veterans, Donald Trump has backed off plans to potentially pardon convicted and alleged U.S. war criminals—at least for now.

The president was personally taken aback by the nearly across-the-board pushback to his administration’s consideration of pardons for several U.S. servicemen accused of grisly crimes in war zones, two people familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast.

The sources also noted that Trump, while monitoring much of the reaction in newspapers and cable news last month, had not expected the blowback to be as fierce and widespread among veterans as it was. Eventually, he decided to tap the brakes on the highly controversial idea, with the possibility of revisiting it in the future.

The decision marks another instance of President Trump reconsidering his plans to dive head-first into a divisive debate at the egging of his media boosters.

Last month, news first broke that the president’s staff had ordered the fast-tracking of the required paperwork for the possible granting of pardons to American servicemen accused or convicted of war crimes, with plans to potentially issue those pardons on or right around Memorial Day. The idea had been privately pushed to the president for months by, among others, Fox & Friends co-host Pete Hegseth, who in addition to being a war veteran and Trump pal has been one of the biggest supporters of Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL platoon leader who was turned in by his own men for allegedly shooting civilians, including a young girl, and knifing to death a captured Islamic State fighter.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-cools-on-plans-to-pardon-alleged-war-criminals?ref=home