Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley should be relieved of duty and face a Court Martial based on his testimony before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees this week.
During his testimony, Gen. Milley admitted to a disturbing pattern of leaking information anonymously to various political reporters.
Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn put it pretty plainly to General Chatterbox.
"Did you talk to Bob Woodward or Robert Costa for their book, 'Peril'?" asked Blackburn. "Woodward, yes, Costa, no," Milley replied. "Did you talk to Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker for their book, 'I Alone Can Fix It'?" "Yes," said Milley. "Did you talk to Michael Bender for his book, 'Frankly, We Did Win This Election'?" "Yes," said Milley.
"Why would you, as the sitting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, talk to a reporter who is writing a book about a prior administration? Why would that be part of your job description?" asked Florida Senator Rick Scott.
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"I think it's very important that senior officials talk to the media, in all its various forms, in order to explain what we're doing," he said.
This answer is disingenuous, at best.
The issue is not whether the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs should "talk to the media... to explain what we're doing." Of course, he should talk to the media. Press conferences, one-on-one interviews, regular briefings. Fine. Talk to the media. Talk to them on the record, with full transparency and for all the world to see.
That's not what Milley has admitted to here.
Milley has admitted that he has spoken anonymously and has been used as a source for highly political and partisan DC journos to provide gossipy dish on former President Trump. All under the radar and without any transparency or accountability.
That kind of subterfuge and "deep throat" leaking is not "talking to the media." It's feeding the bitchy DC beast that is designed not to keep the public informed but to spin a cycle of gossip and career-ending scandal that this town is famous for. It's not informative, and it's not useful. It's destructive, and it feeds into the worst characteristics of our broken political/media culture.
And, by definition, it appears to be the illegal leaking of national security information.
In 2017, when President Trump was being inundated with anonymous leaks meant to bring down his presidency, Trump rightly lamented that federal laws were being violated with all of the dangerous, damaging disclosures.
At that time, Congressional Research Institute called on multiple legal experts to delineate the legality of those leaks. After studying the Espionage Act, their conclusions were definitive.
Officers, employees and contractors may “be subject to disciplinary action for leaks regardless of the nature of the information,” CRS said. “However, they may claim some relief from disciplinary action under the whistleblower protection provisions. Few, if any, journalists have been prosecuted to date, but they may end up in jail for refusing to divulge their sources to a grand jury investigating a leak.”
The memo then cited Section 793 of the Espionage Act and specified several statutory definitions and the related penalties. The very first violation is pretty clear:
"It is a federal crime, punishable by imprisonment for up to 10 years, to disclose national defense information to someone who is not entitled to receive it."
The information regarding Milley's telephone call with the head of the Peoples' Liberation Army in Communist China is a perfect example of "national defense information," and Bob Woodward certainly fits the definition of "someone who is not entitled to receive it."
If Milley is allowed to stay in his position, the message is sent everywhere down the line of the chain of command: It's OK to talk to political reporters and tell them of secret conversations with foreign counterparts as well as with military leadership as long as you determine that it's important (like Milley did) for you to "explain what we're doing."
This is a disaster, and Milley's own words condemn him.
He's been leaking and speaking off the record to these DC hacks and revealing private, national defense information because, in his sole judgment, he believed it was important for those reporters to hear his secrets.
That's not how this works. If our laws, chain of command and national security apparatus are to mean anything, Milley should be removed, and he should face justice. Immediately.
