Trump demanded court-martial of retired Navy SEAL who led bin Laden raid: book
According to a report from Business Insider, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper claims in his new book that former president Donald Trump grew furious with retired US Navy Admiral William McRaven for publically criticizing him and demanded he be recalled back to duty so he could be court-martialed.
McRaven notably oversaw the special operations team that attacked a compound in Pakistan in 2011 in the dark of night where Osama bin Laden was killed, ending an international manhunt that began after the Sept 11, 2001 attack.
As Esper wrote in his newly released book, "A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times," the former president was incensed with McRaven's comments and had to be talked down by himself and Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.
"Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper writes that he and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley had to talk then-President Trump out of a plan to recall both retired US Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal and McRaven to active duty as a way to open the two former senior military officers up to court-martial proceedings," Insider reports, quoting Esper claiming the twice-impeached former president was counseled "Doing this will backfire on you, Mr. President."
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The report adds that "Trump told Esper and Milley that McRaven and McChrystal were 'so disloyal' because of what they were doing and had said about him. Esper writes that Trump was 'spun up' by media stories in Breitbart alleging that McChrystal was advising Democrats on how to use artificial intelligence to 'track down and counter Trump supporters.'"
According to Esper, Trump was dissuaded from his court-martial threat after Milley promised to "personally call the officers and ask them to dial it back."
You can read more here.
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