WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump on Friday granted clemency to two Army officers, one of whom is in prison after being convicted in the killing of two men in Afghanistan.
Trump signed an order that gave a full pardon to Lieutenant Clint Lorance, who had ordered soldiers under his command to open fire on three men who were moving toward them on a motorcycle "with unusual speed," according to a White House statement.
The president also pardoned Major Mathew Golsteyn, a Green Beret who has been charged with an unlawful killing in Afghanistan and was facing a court martial.
According to the White House statement, Golsteyn had shot a man suspected of making a bomb that had killed two Marines "because he was certain that the terrorist's bombmaking activities would continue to threaten American troops and their Afghan partners, including Afghan civilians who had helped identify him."
Trump also ordered the promotion of Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who had been acquitted of killing a prisoner in Afghanistan but was found guilty on another charge because he posed next to the prisoner's corpse. He was selected for promotion before the prosecution.
