Trump congratulates Navy Seal who committed war crime with dead body: 'Glad I could help!'

Donald Trump has congratulated the decorated Navy Seal who was acquitted of murder in the killing of a wounded Islamic State captive in Iraq in 2017.

On Tuesday Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher was acquitted of murdering a captured Islamic State fighter but convicted of unlawfully posing for pictures with the detainee’s dead body.

A jury also cleared him of attempted murder in the shootings of two civilians and all other charges.

Mr Trump, who intervened earlier this year to have Gallagher moved from the brig to less restrictive confinement, tweeted congratulations to the Seal and his family.

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“Congratulations to Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher, his wonderful wife Andrea, and his entire family. You have been through much together. Glad I could help!” the president wrote.

The same military jurors who acquitted a decorated Navy Seal of murder in the killing of a wounded Islamic State captive under his care will return to court Wednesday to decide whether he should serve any jail time for posing with the 17-year-old militant’s corpse.

Gallagher could face up to four months imprisonment for the single conviction along with a reduction in rank, forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay and a reprimand.

Having already served seven months in confinement ahead of the trial, the Bronze Star recipient is expected to go home a free man, his defence lawyers said. In the military justice system, the jury decides the sentence.

After the verdict was read, the defence attorneys jumped up from their seats as Gallagher turned and embraced his wife over the bar of the gallery.

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Asked in an interview Wednesday on Fox what his message might be to future Navy Seals, Gallagher said he would tell them that “loyalty is a trait that seems to be lost ... You’re there to watch your brother’s back, and he’s there to watch your back.”

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