Should being the editor of the Harvard Law Review be a disqualifier for the presidency? One can wonder. A couple of years ago, when pressed on the point of his administration’s disgraceful mistreatment of alleged (and certainly probable) mega-leaker Bradley Manning, the president had this to say:
“I have to abide by certain classified information,” Obama said on a video that quickly began to circulate among media outlets Friday. “If I was to release stuff, information that I’m not authorized to release, I’m breaking the law. … We’re a nation of laws. We don’t individually make our own decisions about how the laws operate. … He broke the law.” (Reported in Politico by MJ Lee and Abby Philip here)
Well, we can all laugh at the notion that the president can’t, and doesn’t, release classified information whenever he feels like there’s a political advantage to be obtained by doing so, a privilege of which all senior Washington players avail themselves, though with slightly less freedom than the president himself. But the real whopper, of course, was the president’s declaration that “He” (Manning) broke the law. That innocent until proven guilty stuff don’t apply to folks who piss off Obama.
Well, there he goes again. Now, Politico’s Jennifer Epstein reports the following:
President Obama’s comments condemning military sexual assault and suggesting that those convicted be punished with, among other things, a dishonorable discharge may be backfiring on his efforts to root out the growing problem.
In pretrial hearings in two cases, a Navy judge in Hawaii ruled this week that Obama had exerted “unlawful command influence” as commander-in-chief in outlining the specific “consequences” he saw fit for members of the military convicted of sexual assault.
As a result of Navy Judge Cmdr. Marcus Fulton’s rulings, the defendants in United States v. Johnson and United States v. Fuentes can’t be punitively discharged, even if they’re convicted of sexual assault. Stars and Stripes first reported on the rulings.
“I expect consequences,” Obama said at a press conference in early May that came just as the Pentagon released a report detailing rising incidences of sexual assaults in 2012. “So I don’t just want more speeches or awareness programs or training, but ultimately folks look the other way. If we find out somebody’s engaging in this, they’ve got to be held accountable — prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged. Period.”
