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.

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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.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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