The convicted war criminal pardoned by President Trump after serving a third of a 19-year prison sentence for killing unarmed Afghan civilians says he can’t find a job ‘even at Walmart or Target.’
Former US Army 1st Lt Clint Lorance tweeted on Thursday that he was struggling to find employment despite the fact that he was granted a full pardon by the president last month.
In the now-deleted tweet, Lorance wrote that his dishonorable discharge from the military ‘makes it impossible to find a job. Even at Walmart or Target.’
In the tweet, Lorance claims Trump ‘told me my record would be expunged.’
‘His staff in the White House must have disagreed,’ he wrote. ‘This will be an uphill battle.’
Former US Army 1st Lt Clint Lorance (right) says he find it ‘impossible’ to find a job – ‘even at Walmart or Target.’ Lorance was pardoned last month by President Trump (left) after serving six years of a 19-year sentence
Lorance was found guilty on two counts of second-degree murder in August 2013 for the July 2012 incident where he ordered soldiers in his platoon to open fire at three men on a motorcycle in southern Afghanistan. Pictured left and right before August 2013
The tweet included what looked like an email from Target, which informed him that it rejected his application for a job in the human resources department.
The company said in the email that it was ‘unable to provide specific feedback’ about Lorance’s candidacy.
Last year, Target said it was revising its hiring practices by removing questions about criminal history from job applications, according to Business Insider.
The company said that questions about a candidate’s criminal history would only be dealt with ‘in the final stages of the hiring process.’
‘There were claims that the approach may have unintentionally disqualified certain applicants, and that some applicants were disqualified because of convictions that weren’t related to the position for which they applied,’ Target said last year.
The company said that the new process ‘ensures individuals are considered for employment based on their qualifications, interview and availability.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to Walmart and Target seeking comment.
Trump officially pardoned Lorance and ordered for his release on November 15, after the army lieutenant had served six years at the Fort Leavenworth prison in Kansas.
The 34-year-old was serving a 19-year sentence for second-degree murder for ordering troops under his command to open fire on three unarmed Afghan men riding motorcycles in Afghanistan in July 2012.
Two of those men died but Lorance and his supporters remain adamant that they were enemy combatants.
During an appearance on the Fox News show Fox & Friends three days after his release, he said he received a personal phone call from Trump prior to his release.
Trump has also intervened in the cases of Eddie Gallagher (left) and Matthew Golsteyn (right). Trump ordered the Navy to restore Gallagher’s rank. He also pardoned Golsteyn (right), who was due to face a court-martial over the shooting of an alleged Taliban bomb maker
‘I can’t say enough. You know. I’m so happy to be an American,’ Lorance said.
‘I’m just so glad that we’re part of this amazing country. And it’s got such great, impassioned leadership, and it’s amazing.’
Lorance was pardoned by Trump the same week that the president pardoned another convicted war criminal – Matthew Golsteyn.
Golsteyn, a former Army Green Beret, was due to face a court-martial in December over the shooting of an alleged Taliban bomb maker in Afghanistan in 2015 before the pardon came through from Trump.
The president has also intervened in the case of Eddie Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was acquitted for murdering a wounded ISIS fighter in Iraq but was convicted for posing with his corpse.
Richard Spencer (seen above in July) was fired as Navy secretary for his handling of the Gallagher case
Trump, who had tweeted support for Gallagher and stated that his case had been ‘handled very badly from the beginning,’ short-circuited the Navy´s administrative review of Gallagher´s status by ordering then-Navy Secretary Richard Spencer to restore Gallagher’s rank.
Trump tweeted that Gallagher must be allowed to keep his Trident pin, the medal that designates a SEAL member.
The Navy had planned to let an administrative board review the question starting Monday, but eventually Defense Secretary Mark Esper decided to stop that process and let Gallagher retire as a SEAL, as Trump had ordered.
Spencer, who was fired for his handling of the Gallagher case, wrote that the commander in chief ‘has very little understanding’ of how the American military works.
Last week, the Navy announced that it had canceled the peer-review boards for three SEAL officers who supervised Gallagher during the Iraq deployment that gave rise to the war crimes charges.