December 16, 2018

Trump Hails a Soldier the Army Just Charged with Murder as a “Military Hero”

Prosecutors say this former Green Beret committed a war crime.

Matthew Golsteyn admitted to the killing in a 2016 interview.

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Early Sunday morning, President Donald Trump sent a tweet promising to examine the case of an Afghanistan war veteran who earlier in the week was charged with murder by Army prosecutors.

The charges date back to 2010, when Maj. Matt Golsteyn was deployed with a unit fighting near Marja. Three Marines he was working with were killed by a booby trap bomb. In a 2016 interview with Fox News, Golsteyn, a Green Beret, described apprehending a man he believed to be the bomb maker and killing him, even though, according to Fox News, superiors had ordered him released on a lack of evidence.

Golsteyn’s actions were first investigated at least as early as 2011. In 2014, an inquiry closed without formal charges, but Golsteyn was stripped of a combat medal, kicked out of the special forces, and found to have engaged in conduct unbecoming of an officer. Another investigation was opened late in 2016 following his Fox appearance.

Golsteyn’s case has previously been championed by a handful of prominent veterans, including Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), who wrote a 2015 op-ed arguing that Golsteyn’s punishments were “no way to treat one of America’s top soldiers.” In August, federal prosecutors charged Hunter with campaign finance violations, alleging, among other infractions, that Hunter and his wife discussed a scheme to officially report a personal clothing purchase as an expenditure meant to benefit wounded veterans.

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate