唐纳德·特朗普总统赦免了迈克尔·贝赫纳，他是一名陆军中尉，被判在5月枪杀一名被美军拘留的伊拉克男子。

接下来是陆军中尉克林特·洛兰斯(Clint Lorance)和陆军特种部队军官马修·戈尔斯坦(Mathew L. Golsteyn)的赦免，前者因谋杀两名阿富汗平民而被判19年徒刑，后者因杀害一名他认为是塔利班炸弹制造者的手无寸铁的阿富汗人而将于12月2日面临谋杀指控。

接下来是爱德华·加拉格尔——一名特种作战军士长，因与一名已故战士的尸体合影而被定罪。尽管特朗普并没有赦免海军海豹突击队，但他通过将加拉格尔恢复到目前的军衔，参与了军事进程，并阻止国防部官员举行纪律听证会，听证会可能会剥夺加拉格尔的三叉戟徽章——这一标志着他是海豹突击队精英社区的成员。

特朗普和五角大楼高层领导人之间罕见的关于加拉格尔的公开争论导致了海军部长理查德·斯潘塞的辞职——一个帮助资助和影响最近总统干预的组织的首席执行官告诉我们新闻周刊这些可能不是椭圆形办公室的最后赦免。

“我认为我们现在看到的只是冰山一角，美国爱国者联盟正在支持那些被不正当地指控犯有战争罪和被不公正地定罪的战士，”退役海军陆战队员中校·大卫·布尔·古芬在与美国爱国者联盟主席兼首席执行官的电话中说新闻周刊星期一。

2018年6月1日，DC华盛顿美国海岸警卫队总部，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普在指挥权交接仪式上观看卡尔·舒尔茨海军上将接替保罗·祖孔特海军上将担任美国海岸警卫队指挥官。自上任以来，特朗普总统已经发布了三项赦免令，为被指控犯有战争罪的军人服务，并阻止国防部官员举行纪律听证会，以决定海军海豹突击队是否应该被剥夺三叉戟——这是一种象征他们在精英海豹突击队社区成员身份的战争装备。

这非营利慈善机构退役海军少校比尔·唐纳休不同意美国海军陆战队在2005年审判前在伊拉克哈迪萨杀害近20多人——其中包括妇女和儿童——的待遇后，成立了该基金，为被控犯有战争罪的部队提供法律支持。

非营利组织希望向特朗普政府提交的案件中，有一起涉及一名被定罪的陆军国民警卫队步兵，他在2010年阿富汗拉格曼省的一次审讯中开枪打死了一名手无寸铁的阿富汗男子。

德里克·米勒(Derrick Miller)在堪萨斯州莱文沃思堡的军事监狱被判终身监禁，但六年后，米勒的刑期被减刑；他在五月被假释。他现在为路易斯安那州共和党众议员路易·戈默特办公室的战士正义核心小组工作。众议院共和党核心小组拥有加州众议员邓肯·亨特和爱荷华州史蒂夫·金等成员。

“这些案件是在奥巴马总统面前提出的，不会引起任何关注。古芬说:“特朗普总统至少在审查这些案件，他能够看到哪里存在巨大的非法指挥影响、起诉不当行为和调查员滥用。”。

他补充道:“我们正在推动德里克·米勒中士对调查结果和判决提出异议，我们正在为此提供资金，并非常努力地推动。我们应该会在未来几个月看到一些行动。”

八年前，米勒在2010年位于阿富汗东部拉格曼省的一名手无寸铁的阿富汗平民被判谋杀罪。

在审判中，两名目击者称阿富汗平民已经越过了安全警戒线，米勒拦住他进行审问。过了一会儿，米勒让阿富汗人趴在地上，大叫说如果他不停止对他在前哨站的所作所为撒谎，他就要杀了他。

目击者称，米勒四年来第三次参加战斗，随后开枪击中阿富汗平民的头部，并将他的尸体拖到厕所。国防小组和米勒的支持者认为，阿富汗平民实际上是塔利班的侦察员，当米勒试图偷米勒的手枪时，他出于自卫扣动了扳机。

古芬告诉我新闻周刊米勒实际上挽救了生命，因为当国民警卫队开枪打死这个人时，不到一个小时后，他所在部队的其他成员受到了塔利班武装分子的袭击，这引起了他们的警觉。

另一起案件涉及约翰·哈特利，一名陆军上士被降为列兵，因对四名伊拉克被拘留者的处决式谋杀而被判40年徒刑。哈特利坚称自己是无辜的，并对所有指控不认罪。

2007年3月，获得铜星勋章的哈特利是他所在步兵单位——堪萨斯州赖利堡第18步兵团第1营阿尔法连的最高士官。

哈特利在伊拉克巴格达的一个地区进行车辆巡逻，在那里，该部队经常遭到叛乱分子的袭击，他的两名战友——上士·卡尔·索托·皮内多和马里欧·格雷罗专家——在事件发生前几周被打死，最终被送进监狱。

根据法院审查的文件，车辆巡逻队遭到攻击，但在交战期间，陆军士兵跟踪了几名逃到附近建筑的男子新闻周刊。

阿尔法连的步兵搜查了该建筑，拘留了四名成年男子，并发现了一批枪支和各种弹药，包括狙击步枪和该地区常用的其他武器。

对这些人、武器和弹药进行了拍照，不久之后，四名伊拉克被拘留者被戴上手铐、蒙上眼睛，并被放在布拉德利战斗车的后面，被带到拘留行动中心。

根据提交给陆军刑事上诉法院的法庭文件，哈特利据称向他的战友抱怨说，拘留行动中心可能会释放被拘留的伊拉克人，并说他们会“照顾”他们。后来，当一名士兵通知他们的前哨指挥部巡逻队已经带走了被拘留者时，他变得愤怒起来。

巡逻队短暂地返回了前哨站，但后来又回到了巡逻队遭到袭击的地区。法庭文件称哈特利要求志愿者帮助他“照顾”被拘留者——两人同意，其他几个人不同意。

据称，三名士兵随后将四名被拘留者从布拉德利战斗车中带走，并在运河边将这些人排成一行。哈特利与一等中士约瑟夫·梅奥和小迈克尔·莱希一起开枪击中了每个人的后脑勺，摘下手铐，并将他们的尸体推入水中。

古芬说梅奥和莱希对哈特利的证词是有问题的，他们希望达成协议，因为他们正面临其他罪行的纪律处分。哈特利的支持者声称士兵们渴望与检察官达成协议。

哈特利入狱11年的一个原因是他拒绝承认犯罪。

“问题是绝对没有确凿的物理证据证明这是真的发生了，”古芬告诉记者新闻周刊。“犯罪调查人员实际上去了现场，他们找不到任何血迹。然后他们进入运河，疏浚运河，把潜水员放入运河。他们找不到任何尸体。此外，他们找不到任何子弹、弹壳、任何残余物，也找不到任何证据证明发生了犯罪。”

古芬告诉我新闻周刊哈特利获得假释，但他将在堪萨斯州莱文沃思堡的军事监狱再呆一年。该组织正试图尽快释放他。

自从特朗普第一次上任以来，哈特利和米勒的案子收藏福克斯新闻的肖恩·哈尼蒂和极右反穆斯林政治活动家帕梅拉·盖勒等保守媒体专家的关注。

但特朗普最近的赦免和他对加拉格尔事件的干预，引发了军方和退伍军人群体的激烈辩论，促使一些现任和前任美国军官在社交媒体上或匿名条件下公开反对总统。

埃里克·迈尔是一名前陆军军官和西点军校毕业生，他的律师事务所专门研究美国军事判例法新闻周刊今年早些时候，特朗普赦免了同样得到美国爱国者联盟支持的贝赫纳，这是对美国军方确保定罪过程的嘲弄。

“这是明显的违法行为，明显的战争罪行，”迈尔说，“但是看看程序...贝赫纳不是由陪审团成员来评判的。他正受到职业军官的审判，这些人懂得法治，并将一生奉献给了武器行业。所以这完全无视那些被派去听所有证据并决定某人是否是凶手的领导人的判断...[赦免]完全是第二次猜测，基本上说他们的观点毫无意义，”迈尔说。

古芬说，服役人员和退伍军人对特朗普赦免的分歧是基于缺乏信息。

“理解美国爱国者联盟在哪里失败的关键不在于这些人是有罪还是无辜，而在于即使最终他们被判有罪，他们的权利也应该得到保护；他们的权利必须得到保护新闻周刊。

他补充道:“当人们说，‘哦，这个人是个杀人犯’，而‘总统让杀人犯走了’，情况不一定是这样的。这些人要么被不当指控，要么被非法定罪，总统正试图纠正这一错误，总统说宪法和我们的个人权利甚至比做错事的个人更重要。”

AFTER GALLAGHER, MILITARY ACTIVISTS LOBBY TRUMP TO INTERVENE IN THESE OTHER CASES

President Donald Trump pardoned Michael Behenna, an Army lieutenant convicted of the fatal shooting of an Iraqi man detained by American forces, in May.

Next came the pardons of Clint Lorance, an Army lieutenant who was serving a 19-year sentence for the murder of two Afghan civilians, and Major Mathew L. Golsteyn, an Army Special Forces officer who was set to face murder charges on Dec. 2 for killing an unarmed Afghan he believed was a Taliban bomb maker.

Then, there's Edward Gallagher—a special operations chief petty officer convicted of posing for photos with the body of a deceased fighter. While Trump has not pardoned the Navy SEAL, he has weighed into the military process by restoring Gallagher to his present rank and prevented Defense Department officials from holding a disciplinary hearing that could have stripped Gallagher of his Trident pin—the device signaling his membership in the elite SEAL community.

The rare public dispute between Trump and senior Pentagon leadership over Gallagher led to the resignation of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer—and the CEO of an organization that has helped bankroll and influence the recent presidential interventions tells Newsweek these may not be the last pardons to come out of the Oval Office.

"I think what we're seeing now is the tip of the iceberg, and United American Patriots is supporting those warriors who have been improperly accused of war crimes and unjustly convicted," said retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel David "Bull" Gurfein, the chairman and CEO of United American Patriots, in a phone call with Newsweek on Monday.

U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a Change of Command ceremony as Admiral Karl Schultz takes over from Admiral Paul Zukunft as the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard at U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, DC, June 1, 2018. Since taking office, President Trump has issued three pardons to service members accused of war crimes and prevented Defense Department officials from holding a disciplinary hearing to decide whether a Navy SEAL should be stripped of their Trident—the warfare device signaling their membership in the elite SEAL community.

The non-profit charity which funds legal support for troops accused of war crimes was founded by retired Marine Major Bill Donahue after he disagreed with the treatment of U.S. Marines accused of murdering nearly two dozen people—among them women and children—in Haditha, Iraq, before their trials in 2005.

Among the cases the non-profit wants to present to the Trump administration is one that involves a convicted Army National Guard infantryman who shot and killed an unarmed Afghan man during a 2010 interrogation in the Laghman province of Afghanistan.

Derrick Miller was sentenced to life at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, but six years later, Miller's sentence was reduced; he was paroled in May. He now works for the Justice for Warriors caucus out of the office of Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert of Louisiana. The caucus of House Republicans boasts members such as Representative Duncan Hunter of California and Steve King of Iowa.

"These cases were brought up in front of President Obama and they wouldn't get any attention. And with President Trump, he's at least reviewing these cases and he's able to see where there is tremendous unlawful command influence, prosecutorial misconduct and investigator abuse," said Gurfein.

He added: "We're pushing for Sergeant Derrick Miller to have a disapproval of findings and sentence and we're funding that and pushing very hard. We should see some motion in the next couple of months."

Eight years ago, Miller was found guilty of premeditated murder in the 2010 death of an unarmed Afghan civilian in Laghman province, located in Eastern Afghanistan.

At trial, two witnesses said the Afghan civilian had strayed past a security perimeter, and Miller stopped him for questioning. Moments later, Miller had the Afghan on the ground and yelled that he was going to kill him if he didn't stop lying about what he was doing at the outpost.

The witnesses said Miller, who was on his third combat deployment in four years, then shot the Afghan civilian in the head and dragged his body to a latrine. The defense team and Miller's advocates maintain that the Afghan civilian was, in fact, a Taliban scout and Miller had pulled the trigger in self-defense when the man attempted to steal Miller's sidearm.

Gurfein told Newsweek that Miller actually saved lives because when the National Guardsman shot the man, it caused other members of his unit to be alert when less than an hour later, they were attacked by Taliban militants.

Another case involves John E. Hatley, an Army first sergeant reduced to the rank of private and serving a 40-year sentence for the execution-style murders of four Iraqi detainees. Hatley has maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.

In March 2007, Hatley, a Bronze Star recipient, was the most senior noncommissioned officer of his infantry unit—Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment out of Fort Riley, Kansas.

Hatley was on a vehicle patrol in a sector of Baghdad, Iraq, where the unit had experienced frequent attacks by insurgents and where two of his fellow Army soldiers—Staff Sergeant Karl O. Soto-Pinedo and Specialist Marieo Guerrero—had been killed in the weeks prior to the incident that would ultimately send him to prison.

The vehicle patrol came under fire but during the engagement, Army soldiers tracked several men fleeing to a nearby building, according to court documents reviewed by Newsweek.

The infantry soldiers of Alpha Company searched the building and detained four adult males and uncovered a cache of firearms and assorted munitions, including a sniper rifle and other weapons commonly used in the region.

The men, weapons and ammunition were photographed and soon after, the four Iraqi detainees were handcuffed, blindfolded and placed in the back of a Bradley fighting vehicle to be taken to a detention operations center.

According to court documents submitted to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, Hatley allegedly complained to his fellow soldiers that the detention operations center would probably release the detained Iraqis and said that they would "take care of" them. He later became irate when a soldier informed their command outpost that the patrol had taken detainees.

The patrol briefly returned to the outpost but later went back to the area where the patrol had been attacked. Court documents claim Hatley asked for volunteers to help him "take care" of the detainees—two agreed, several others did not.

The three soldiers then allegedly removed the four detainees from the Bradley fighting vehicle and lined the men up at the edge of the canal. Hatley, along with Sergeant First Class Joseph P. Mayo and Sergeant Michael P. Leahy Jr., shot each of the men in the back of the head, removed their handcuffs and pushed their bodies into the water.

Gurfein said Mayo and Leahy's testimony against Hatley was questionable and they were looking to cut a deal as they were facing disciplinary action for other crimes. Hatley's supporters claim the soldiers were eager to make a deal with prosecutors.

One factor that has kept Hatley behind bars for 11 years is his refusal to admit to the crime.

"The problem is that there is absolutely zero hard physical evidence to prove that this actually happened," Gurfein told Newsweek. "The criminal investigators actually went to the location, they couldn't find any blood spatter. Then they went into the canal and they dredged the canal and they put divers in the canal. They couldn't find any bodies. Moreover, they couldn't find any bullets, any casings, any remnants, anything to prove that a crime had happened."

Gurfein told Newsweek that Hatley was awarded parole but that he will remain at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas for another year. The group is attempting to have him released sooner.

Since Trump first entered office, the cases involving Hatley and Miller have garnered the attention of conservative media pundits such as Sean Hannity of Fox News and Pamela Geller, the far-right anti-Muslim political activist.

But Trump's recent pardons and his intervention in Gallagher's case have fueled fierce debate within the military and veteran communities, galvanizing some current and former U.S. military officers to speak out against the president on social media or on condition of anonymity.

Eric Mayer, a former Army officer and West Point graduate whose law firm specializes in U.S. military case law, told Newsweek earlier this year that in pardoning Behenna, who was also supported by United American Patriots, Trump made a mockery of the process by which the U.S. military secures convictions.

"This was a clear violation, a clear war crime," Mayer said, "but look at the procedure...Behenna was not being judged by people from a jury pool. He was being judged by individuals who were career Army officers, people who knew the rule of law and have dedicated their lives to the profession of arms. So it's a complete disregard for the judgment of those leaders who were put there to hear all the evidence and decided whether somebody was a murderer or not...[The pardon] is a complete second guess and basically says their perspective meant nothing," Mayer said.

Gurfein says the divide among service members and veterans over Trump's pardons is based on a lack of information.

"The key to understanding where United American Patriots falls out is not whether or not these individuals are guilty or innocent, it's that they deserve to have their rights protected even if, at the end of the day, they're found guilty; they must have their rights protected," Gurfein told Newsweek.

He added: "When people say, 'oh, this person is a murderer,' and 'the president is letting murderers go,' that's not necessarily the case. The individuals were either inappropriately charged, they were unlawfully convicted and the president is trying to right this wrong and the president is saying the constitution and our individual rights are paramount even over an individual doing something wrong."