Pete Hegseth’s Role in Trump’s Controversial Pardons of Men Accused of War Crimes

President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement that he would nominate Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense in his second term has already stirred controversy.

Hegseth, a military veteran, staunch defender of Trump’s "America First" agenda, and an outspoken critic of what he calls the military’s "woke" culture, has built a career around challenging the military establishment. He held an influential role in advocating for Trump to intervene on behalf of service members in three cases involving war crime accusations in 2019—cases that divided the military and ignited fierce debates over the limits of executive power and military accountability.

Now, if he is confirmed as the next Secretary of Defense, Hegseth will oversee 1.3 million active-duty service members and manage military strategy at a time of global instability, raising questions about how his past approach towards accused war criminals will impact his military leadership and discipline. 

During Trump’s first term in office, Hegseth lobbied for the pardons of Army Lieutenant Clint Lorance and Army Major Mathew Golsteyn, and pushed to support Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, each of whom were facing charges or convictions related to alleged war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hegseth’s advocacy on behalf of the three service members appeared to pay off: in Nov. 2019, Trump granted pardons to Lorance and Golsteyn, and reversed a demotion of Gallagher, citing Hegseth and Fox News when he tweeted about his decision to review one of the cases.

Hegseth’s vocal defense of these men as victims of overzealous prosecution raised eyebrows in the military community, where such interventions by civilians are seen by some as a threat to the integrity of the justice system. “These are men who went into the most dangerous places on earth with a job to defend us and made tough calls on a moment’s notice,” Hegseth said on Fox & Friends in May 2019. “They’re not war criminals, they’re warriors.”

Lorance had been convicted by a military court in 2013 for the murder of two Afghan men during a military operation in 2012 in which he ordered his soldiers to open fire on a group of unarmed Afghan civilians he suspected of being insurgents. Lorance served six years of a 19-year sentence before Trump, after lobbying from Hegseth and others, granted him a pardon in Nov. 2019, arguing that he was unfairly targeted by military prosecutors and that his actions were justified in a combat environment where split-second decisions were often necessary for survival.

Golsteyn, a former Green Beret, was accused of murdering an unarmed Afghan man in 2010, a suspect he believed was responsible for killing U.S. troops. Although Golsteyn had been awarded the Silver Star for his actions in Afghanistan, he later admitted to killing the suspect during a CIA interview, which prompted an investigation and the eventual charges against him. Trump granted him a pardon in Nov. 2019 after Hegseth interviewed Golsteyn on his show.

Gallagher was charged by the Navy with multiple crimes, including shooting civilians in Iraq, using a knife to kill a teenage Islamic State prisoner in Iraq in 2017, and threatening to kill fellow SEALs if they reported him. Gallagher was acquitted of murder by a military jury but convicted on one count of posing for photographs with the deceased body. His rank was reduced by one step as punishment. Trump reversed Gallagher’s demotion, restoring his rank and benefits.

For Hegseth, a veteran of the Army National Guard who served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, these cases were emblematic of what he saw as a broader pattern of military prosecutors and officials unfairly targeting service members who had made difficult battlefield decisions. He argued that the military justice system was too quick to prosecute and too eager to appease public opinion, particularly from liberal critics of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His defense of these men resonated with a large segment of the conservative base, who viewed the pardons as acts of justice for heroes who were being scapegoated for the failures of the U.S. military’s strategy in the region.

“He risked his life serving abroad to protect the rights of all of us here at home,” Republican Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina said of Gallagher in March 2019 during a rally outside the Capitol, urging authorities to release Gallagher from confinement ahead of his trial “in light of his bravery, his patriotism and his rights as an American citizen.”

The Washington Post reported at the time that Hegseth had personally lobbied Trump on the service members’ behalf, making frequent appeals through his Fox News platform and arguing that that the military has been tainted by political correctness. "You train someone to go and fight and kill the enemy, then they kill the enemy the way someone doesn’t like, and then we put them in jail," Hegseth argued on his Fox News program in Nov. 2019.

His defense of these men attracted criticism from military leaders and former officials, who argued that his actions undermined the integrity of military justice and set a dangerous precedent for presidential interference. Critics warned that such high-profile interventions by a sitting President would undermine the military justice system and embolden troops to disregard the chain of command or engage in reckless behavior without fear of punishment. Others expressed concern that such interventions could damage the U.S. military’s global reputation, particularly among allies who uphold strict standards of conduct in armed conflicts.

Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, who was ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee at the time, said at a hearing in 2019 that he had "deep concern about the President’s recent interference in war crimes cases." He continued: “President Trump's disregard for our military justice system risked undermining the confidence of our service members and the rule of law and their chain of command, especially those who are courageous enough to bring allegations of war crimes to light, and testify against their teammates.”

The decision to nominate Hegseth for Secretary of Defense sets the stage for a potential clash with military leadership. Last week, Hegseth hinted that he would push for the dismissal of senior military leaders whom he views as insufficiently supportive of Trump’s agenda, saying in a podcast interview that he could target Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown in order to remove diversity and inclusion programs at the agency. “First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth told podcast host Shawn Ryan about reforming the military. “Any general that was involved, any general, admiral, whatever, that was involved in any of the DEI/woke sh-t has got to go.” He also said in the podcast interview that “we should not have women in combat roles,” claiming that men are more capable of the job. “It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated,” he said. “Give me a female pilot all day long, I’ve got no issue with that."

Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq War veteran and founder of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Association, called Hegseth “undoubtedly the least qualified nominee for SecDef in American history…and the most overtly political.”

Hegseth may face a challenging confirmation in the Senate, despite Republicans holding the majority. “A Fox & Friends weekend co-host is not qualified to be the Secretary of Defense,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote on social media. “I lead the Senate military personnel panel. All three of my brothers served in uniform. I respect every one of our servicemembers. Donald Trump’s pick will make us less safe and must be rejected.”