The judge in the War Crimes trial of a decorated Navy SEAL has removed the prosecutor from the case, reports the New York Post.

A military judge on Monday removed the prosecutor in the trial of a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes after the defense team accused the attorney of misconduct.

The judge ordered Cmdr. Christopher Czaplak removed from Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher’s trial after Gallagher’s attorney accused him of spying on their emails, according to court documents.

This type of thing has to stop. The Military justice system at one time, had a reputation for doing it right. Convictions were rarely overturned on appeal, especially not for procedural errors. That stellar reputation is rapidly disappearing, only to be replaced by one of mistrust, toadyism and downright criminal conduct. As the defense counsel put it,

“Gallagher’s case has been irreparably corrupted by a government campaign of outrageous and illegal conduct,” attorney Tim Parlatore said in the opening motion to dismiss the charges Wednesday. “This prosecution threatens to make an unequivocal farce of our justice system.”

He’s right. It takes years, even decades to build up a good reputation. All it takes are a few instances like this one to destroy that same reputation. Then there’s the personal destruction of a Warrior’s life, a life dedicated to serving, often at great personal risk, this great thing we call, These United States of America. It needs to stop and the folks involved need to be prosecuted to send a message.

Mike Ford is a retired Infantry Officer who writes on Military, Foreign Affairs and occasionally dabbles in Political and Economic matters.

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