Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher and his wife speak out

Acquitted Navy SEAL Special Operations Senior Chief Eddie Gallagher and his wife Andrea celebrated their court victory in an interview on Wednesday morning where they said slammed the SEALs who testified against him and urged young recruits to restore the force to its former glory.

Gallagher, who has not made a public comment for 10 months, was sandwiched between his lawyer and his wife for the appearance on Fox and Friends.

Despite his court ordeal, he said he would not take back any of the 20 years of service he had given and he claimed the SEALs who testified against him were not representative of the ones he knew.

‘This small group of SEALs that decided to concoct this story in no way, shape or form represent the community that I love or that I gave my soul to.

‘This has put a black eye on our community but I want the nation to know, this is not what we are about,’ he said.

‘I wouldn’t give back the 20 years I have done. I have been able to serve with some of the most honorable men. I’ve had to watch my friends be buried in the ground. I would do it again if I could, I would continue to do it if I could,’ he continued.

Asked for his advice to future SEALs, he said: ‘Loyalty is a trait that seems to be lost and I would say bring that back.

‘Be a part of a brotherhood. Remember you’re there to watch your brother’s back and he’s there to watch yours.

‘Loyalty. And honesty,’ he said.

Eddie Gallagher (center) with his attorney Tim Parlatore (left) and wife Andrea on Wednesday morning as he made a plea to future SEALs to bring ‘loyalty’ back to the ‘brotherhood’

Gallagher will return to court on Wednesday to be sentenced for the one charge he was convicted of – posing with a corpse.

The maximum sentence is four months, which he has already served longer than in confinement awaiting trial.

WHAT HAPPENS TO GALLAGHER NOW?

Gallagher is still employed by the Navy and whether or not he will choose to leave remains unconfirmed but likely.

His wife previously said he had planned on retiring before he was indicted in September 2018.

If he chooses to leave, the Navy can either accept his retirement papers and let him go with a full pension, or they can discharge him.

If he is discharged, it will be in one of three ways; honorably, generally or dishonorably.

If he is charged dishonorably, the decision will be made by a board of three members who must agree on the terms.

It is known as an administrative separation board.

How much of his pension he will get depends on that decision.

If he is charged honorably, he should walk with all of it.

If he is charged dishonorably, it can be taken away.

Gallagher was vague about his plans on Wednesday morning.

He referred to the ‘next chapter’ and his attorney said that after the sentencing, they would go to the Special Warfare Operations department to iron out next steps.

Gallagher now can file retirement papers and hope to leave with his full pension, or he may be fired.

The Navy can discharge him in three ways; honorably, generally or dishonorably in which case he would likely lose his retirement.

His wife previously revealed that he had planned to retire this year.

Cully Stimson, who spent 25 years in the Navy as a prosecutor, defense counsel and then judge, told DailyMail.com he would likely try to leave as soon as possible.

‘What I don’t think will happen is that he’s retained and continues to serve. He doesn’t want to – hell no. And I wouldn’t either.

‘I’ve had clients acquitted in criminal cases and the last thing they want to do is serve another day in uniform because they feel they have been wronged, and he is adamant he has been,’ he said.

How far the Navy will now go in punishing him financially remains to be seen.

Gallagher and his wife have lambasted the the Navy for going after him after nearly two decades of service and say they are the targets of a ‘fixated’ prosecution and dishonest, ‘mean girls’ SEALs who simply did not like Gallagher’s tough leadership in the battlefield.

Outside the court on Tuesday, Gallagher greeted the media alongside his wife and lawyers. He spoke briefly saying: ‘I’m happy and I’m thankful.

‘I thank God, my legal team and my wife.’

According to Fox News he joked with his legal team that ‘it’s Independence Day’.

His wife Andrea said they are now looking forward to freedom: ‘We just want to celebrate today.

‘I was feeling like we’re finally vindicated after being terrorized by the government that my husband fought for for 20 years.

‘I think that this vindication, I hope, will be a lesson learned to everybody, that we need to uphold innocent until proven guilty (and) due process.’ ⁣

An unidentified SEAL is shown unzipping a medical bag to tend to the boy in Mosul, 2017, while others stand around. Gallagher and one other, Corey Scott, treated him

Navy Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, center, walks with his wife, Andrea Gallagher, left, and advisor, Bernard Kerik as they leave a military court on Naval Base San Diego, Tuesday

‘If this was a movie no one would believe it.’

The couple drove away from the court in a white convertible Mustang and headed to celebrate with his supporters joking they were heading for ‘tattoos and alcohol’.

Defense lawyer Marc Mukasey said Gallagher cried ‘tears of joy, emotion, freedom and absolute euphoria’. Family and friends clutched each other in relief in the courtroom.

Mukasey added outside court: ‘Suffice it to say this is a huge victory.

‘It’s a huge weight off the Gallaghers.’

The maximum sentence for posing with a corpse is four months and he spent longer than that in confinement awaiting trial before being freed by President Trump in March therefore he left the court Tuesday.

‘We have a sentencing to do, but the maximum sentence of what they’re about to sentence him on is much less than the time that they’ve already had him in the brig,’ defense attorney Tim Parlatore said after Tuesday’s verdict. ‘So he is going home.’

Parlatore said the trial was a ‘mutiny’ and that he was being set up for the murder of the young ISIS fighter in 2017 by a group of younger SEALs who did not like his tough, old-school leadership style.

‘The jury found him not guilty of murder, stabbing, the shootings, not guilty of all those things. They did find him guilty of taking a photo with a dead terrorist which we admitted all along, he’s in that photo,’ Parlatore added.

At the time they started complaining about him to their superiors, the other SEALs had been back in the US for six months and Gallagher was up for a promotion and a Silver Star.

The turning point in the court martial was when one of the SEALs, Corey Scott, who had been expected to testify for the prosecution took responsibility for killing the boy Gallagher was alleged to have murdered.

Special Operations Chief Edward ‘Eddie’ Gallagher is pictured above

Scott now faces perjury charges from the Naval prosecutors he blindsided. They say he made it up to protect Gallagher after being granted immunity for his own war crimes.

Earlier Tuesday Andrea shared a black and white photograph on a Facebook page where she has been keeping fans and followers updated throughout the trial, Andrea Gallagher wrote: ‘Please pray for a Not Guilty verdict and the #TRUTH to finally set us Free as the jury deliberates again today so this nightmare can end.’

Prosecutors told them that Gallagher’s guilt was clear in photos he took with the dead militant’s body.

They also pointed to texts where Gallagher allegedly told friends: ‘Got him with my hunting knife’ and ‘there’s a good story behind this’, claiming those proved his guilt.

They tried to throw out the confession of another SEAL who took credit for killing the boy, claiming he was lying because he had been given immunity and wanted to protect Gallagher, and said jurors must focus instead on what Gallagher said after the boy’s death.

THE WAR CRIMES GALLAGHER WAS ACCUSED OF

Murder (not guilty)

On May 3, SEAL Team 7 was clearing villages near Mosul when they learned that Iraqi forces, which they were helping to fight ISIS, had encountered a young, IS fighter.

He was injured and in need of medical care after suffering a collapsed lung in a strike. The boy had been brought into the SEAL compound by a Humvee of Iraqi fighters, the SEALs testified.

Gallagher was not at the compound but was out on the field. When he call came over the radio that the boy needed care, Gallagher volunteered.

According to witness testimony, he told the Iraqi soldiers not to waste their own medics on caring for the enemy and that he instead would tend to him.

‘Lay off him, he’s mine,’ he is accused of saying. When they got back to the base, some of the SEALs said they saw Gallagher give him medical aid.

They then claimed, however, that he took his hunting knife and spontaneously stabbed him twice in the neck and once in the side.

One testified that it caused him to bleed so profusely there was blood spurting from his neck.

‘It looked similar to a baby throwing up,’ said Special Operations Chief Craig Miller.

Others say that the last time they saw the militant, he was alive and in Gallagher’s care but he was dead when they returned.

The testimony which varies greatest is Corey Scott’s who said he was the one who killed the boy because he wanted to spare him the torture he faced from Iraqi soldiers.

Attempted murder (not guilty)

There are two charges of assault on ‘noncombatants’ listed in the charge sheet.

One is against an elderly man who the SEALs say they saw Gallagher shoot from his sniper’s nest for no reason.

The other is a young, schoolage girl who they say he shot. The SEALs said he claimed to have killed them but it is not clear from the charging sheet if they actually died.

According to testimony, he allegedly told them over the radio: ‘You guys missed them but I got them.’

On another occasion, the SEALs say he shot a different girl, aged between 12 and 14, in the stomach. She was wearing a floral hijab, they said.

The defense argued that none of the witnesses actually saw him pull the trigger and that was entirely possible the civilians had been shot by ISIS and not Gallagher.

Posing with a corpse, reenlistment ceremony next to a corpse and flying a drone over it (guilty of posing with corpse)

Photographs that were shown to the jury showed Gallagher and the other SEALs posing with the corpse of the dead Iraqi fighter once he was dead.

He sent the image to friends and boasted about it, according to the SEALs.

Not long after he died, Portier reenlisted Gallagher into the Navy next to the boy’s corpse which had been covered by a blanket.

There was also a charge for flying a drone over it in a disrespectful way once he was dead.

The other SEALs participated in all of these three charges which come under the term ‘Novel’.

The crime is that Gallagher discredited the Navy in his actions.

All of the others, with the exception of Portier, were given immunity in exchange for testifying against him.

Obstructing justice x 3 (not guilty)

Prosecutors allege that Gallagher obstructed justice by trying to stop other SEALs from testifying against him once the investigation was underway and before it began.

They say that he threatened them and told them he would kill them if they ever told superiors how he had behaved during the deployment.

Unlawfully firing his gun (not guilty)

Gallagher allegedly fired his rifle indiscriminately, at least ’10 times’ than some of the other SEALs said they did, while deployed.

Unlawful possession of a controlled substance (dropped before trial)

He is accused of having Sustaon 250, a testosterone injection. Prosecutors claimed he was using the steroid improperly.

He argued that it was part of a medical kit he had been given to give to others that was discovered during a search of his house.

Wrongful use of a controlled substance (dropped before trial)

Gallagher also had tramadol, a highly addictive painkiller, which they say he was abusing.

He argued that he had long held a prescription for it.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk