AFPI Amicus Brief: “Seal Team Six” Question is ludicrous and moot!
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), in partnership with co-counsel Schaerr Jaffe LLP, filed an Amicus Brief with the United States Supreme Court in support of former President Donald Trump’s presidential immunity case. AFPI is filing the brief on behalf of three former high-ranking military leaders, whose service spans more than a half-century, under 10 Presidents of both political parties with diverging policy agendas.
The brief, signed by former Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Secretary Robert Wilkie; former Commander of the 82d Airborne Division and Commander of Special Operations Command Europe, Lt. General (Ret.) Keith Kellogg; and, former Commander of the Army’s elite Delta Force, Lt. General (Ret.) William Gerald “Jerry” Boykin; calls the question about whether a President could order Seal Team Six to assassinate a political opponent moot because the order would be illegal and never carried out by the military. The brief reads:
“In sum, military leaders would know that a presidential order to the military to assassinate a civilian for political ends is unlawful, and in fact is required not to carry out such an order.”
“Anti-Trump hysteria has now led some in the media to question the patriotism of the United States soldier,” said the Honorable Robert Wilkie, former Secretary of the Department of Veteran Affairs and, Distinguished Fellow, AFPI Center for American Security. “The notion that soldiers under oath to the Constitution would follow an illegal order to kill American citizens is both absurd and an insult to the professionalism of those upon whose shoulders our liberty rests.”
“A hypothetical question was asked by an appeals court judge to President Trump’s lawyer on the legality of a military special operation unit, killing a political opponent if ordered by the president. It was an absurd question,” said Lt. Gen (Ret.) Keith Kellogg, former National Security Advisor to President Trump and Vice President Pence and, co-chair, AFPI Center for America Security. “No member of the military service would execute such an illegal order such as that. Secondly, my time with President Trump allows me to state without equivocation, he would never issue or consider such an action.”
“The fact that questions like this are even taken seriously shows just how damaged the current image of the US military is in the eyes of some American citizens and politicians. It also points to a misunderstanding about the character of our military,” said former Commander of the Army’s elite Delta Force, Lt. General (Ret.) William Gerald “Jerry” Boykin. “In my 36 years of military service, much of which was in combat zones, I cannot identify a single soldier who would be willing to follow an illegal order to kill the commander in chief or any other politician. Illegal orders cannot be executed without severe penalties for the service member that would be willing to do that. We need to think critically about how to change the image of our military with the American public.”
Read the full Amicus Brief here.
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