Donald Trump just fired a significant portion of the senior military leadership, and I don’t think that the bloodletting is finished yet. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Chief of Naval Operations, the Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, as well as the JAG officers for all three branches. The reason? The press would have you believe that it’s simply politics as usual. However, there are media outlets reporting that it was much more serious than that. The story goes that they, along with portions of the FBI, were engaged in a mutiny against the President of the United States, which means that we were on the verge of an actual military coup. This is HUGE.
The implications here are downright grave- we were on the cusp of having a nuclear armed military engaged in overthrowing civil authority. I can’t understate how serious this was and is. How did it come about?
James O’Keefe released a report just before the inauguration, where a former FBI agent was bragging to an undercover reporter about how he had been in the Tank (that is the Pentagon underground command post) meeting with a number of senior military Generals, and they were planning to resist the legitimate orders of the President upon his inauguration. This wasn’t a one time conversation- this FBI agent was a senior advisor to the Pentagon, and also a key player in the efforts to torpedo Trump’s 2016 campaign for the Clinton campaign.
During these meetings, according to the interview, high-level Pentagon officials were discussing in secret meetings defying and potentially overthrowing Trump if he issued orders deemed controversial by military leadership. If that sentence doesn’t send a shiver down your spine, you don’t understand the US military.
I believe that Biden knew about all of this, which is why Milley got a Presidential pardon. After all, we already knew that Milley had staged a coup back in 2021.
What’s important here going forward is in the title of this post: Article 94. Being that most of these players are in the military, they are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice: the UCMJ. It’s the law for all members of the US military that are in Federal Service that is second only to the Constitution. Article 94 of the UCMJ deals with mutiny and sedition. Read what it has to say:
Article 94:
(a)Any person subject to this chapter who—
(1)with intent to usurp or override lawful military authority, refuses, in concert with any other person, to obey orders or otherwise do his duty or creates any violence or disturbance is guilty of mutiny;
(2) with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of lawful civil authority, creates, in concert with any other person, revolt, violence, or other disturbance against that authority is guilty of sedition;
(3) fails to do his utmost to prevent and suppress a mutiny or sedition being committed in his presence, or fails to take all reasonable means to inform his superior commissioned officer or commanding officer of a mutiny or sedition which he knows or has reason to believe is taking place, is guilty of a failure to suppress or report a mutiny or sedition.
(b) A person who is found guilty of attempted mutiny, mutiny, sedition, or failure to suppress or report a mutiny or sedition shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.
You read that right- anyone who was involved, assisted, or who knew and didn’t report it can be given any penalty that a court martial directs, up to and including the death penalty.
What’s even more important here is the timing. Mark Milley was given an full and unconditional Presidential pardon on January 19, 2025 (pdf warning). If it can be proven that this mutiny was still being discussed on or after January 20, and especially if Milley was still discussing this with the plotters, his pardon means jack shit. He, along with the other plotters can (and in my opinion should) be lined up against the wall and shot. There is no other penalty that will suffice for playing with military officers overthrowing the legitimate civilian authority of the Presidency.
This is also why the three service’s JAG officers needed to be relieved. They cannot be impartial in investigating and prosecuting their bosses. Mutinies are a HUGE deal. Here are a few examples of US mutinies:
- The Houston Riot of 1917 was an example of 156 Black troops disobeyed orders from their superiors, seized weapons and attempted to march on the City of Houston. Nineteen of them were executed, and 41 of them received life sentences.
- In the wake of a magazine explosion in Port Chicago in 1944, black sailors (258 of them) refused to return to work, saying that it was unsafe. Fifty of them were charged with mutiny, and received 8 to 15 years of hard labor and dishonorable discharges.
- Up to this point, nearly every mutiny involved black troops violently refusing to obey orders of white officers. To my knowledge, there has never been a case of an officer refusing to obey orders, and certainly never a case of a group of officers discussing overthrowing the President.
To be fair, the left is claiming that the FBI agent’s statements, while provocative, lack specific details about actionable plans, and some argue they reflect personal frustrations rather than an organized conspiracy. People who claim this don’t understand the military. Even rolling your eyes when given an order is sufficient to see a military member tossed in prison. There is no such thing as free speech in the US military. Want an example of just how harsh the military treats minor infractions? Read this story about how trials are done, than read this about a person making a small joke.
At the VERY least, the officers involved are guilty of Article 134, making disloyal statements. A conviction under Article 134 for Disloyal Statements can mean a maximum possible punishment of a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances (meaning pension, as well), reduction in rank to E1, and confinement for three years. Upon release, the person would be a convicted felon. That would be the minimum if those excusing the meetings were taken in the light most favorable to them. Personally, I think that this goes far beyond that.
Now I don’t think that any full action should be taken until a complete investigation is carried out. This needs to be fully investigated and brought to a courts martial of all individuals with any involvement or knowledge. Perhaps a deal can be cut with one or more of them to testify against the others. Say, an offer of “plead guilty to Article 92, dereliction of duty, we will give you a BCD, 12 month’s confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, but you testify against the others who were involved.” I promise that one or more staff officers who were in the room will sing like a bird.
It’s important that the entire government sees what happens when you engage in a mutiny. If this is investigated, who can be trusted to do the investigating? The steps that must be taken are immediate: Everyone who was even loosely involved needs to be relieved for loss of the trust of the chain of command. Then the President needs to request a special investigation team. That team should then begin an investigation, the results of which will be submitted to an Article 32 investigation. Those officers who are charged with offenses under the UCMJ should be held in military confinement until the conclusion of their courts martials.
There is no other way, unless you would like to see some general on TV with a shit load of ribbons on his chest, proclaiming himself to be the interim Supreme Commander, just until he can reestablish the government, of course.
