U.S. District Judge Joseph Bianco has struck down the Marine Corps’ attempt to drum Maj. Jason Brezler out of the service for sending classified information via email to warn about a sexually deviant and potentially dangerous Afghan police chief.
For three years, Brezler has been locked in a battle with the Marine Corps after a board of inquiry pushed in December 2013 for him to be discharged from the service. Now, it seems he’s finally won his fight, Marine Corps Times reports.
“This is a stunning rebuke of the fundamentally unjust proceedings to which this decorated Marine was subjected for over three years,” Brezler’s attorney Michael Bowe said in a statement.
In July 2012, Brezler sent classified information about Afghan police chief Sarwan Jan to warn about his background. Two years prior, Brezler kicked Jan off a military base for ties to the Taliban and eerie reports that Jan was an active sexual abuser of small boys. But in 2012, Jan was back and this time at Forward Operating Base Delhi in Afghanistan.
In August, one of Jan’s sex slaves shot up the base, killing three Marines.
Brezler noted in court papers that “no Marine commanders were ever disciplined for allowing Jan to assume a command on FOB Delhi, allowing him to bring an entourage of chai boys onto FOB Delhi, or failing to take any steps to protect Marines on FOB Delhi from the danger Jan posed.”
From the very start of the incident, the Pentagon wanted to memory-hole the attacks. The family of one of the Marines killed by Jan’s sex slave had to sue the DoD in 2014 for more information about the attack that they were entitled to in the first place.
Brezler told his commanding officer he had sent classified information over his personal email account and was subsequently relieved of command.
The real trouble, however, took place when GOP Rep. Peter King, who wondered why Brezler had been given an unfavorable fitness report, opened a line of communication with then-Commandant Gen. James Amos.
The inquiry prompted a story in Marine Corps Times about King’s effort, which in turn provoked high-level officials in the service. A few days after the story, Brezler was notified he would need to appear before a board of inquiry.
Looking back, the judge said Tuesday that there was no evidence the Marine Corps was ever considering bringing Brezler before a board–until the article by Marine Corps Times was published.
However, the judge emphasized that he wasn’t saying one way or another whether the Marine Corps was being retaliatory.
“The Judge correctly found that highly relevant documents and information were withheld from the defense, that the excuses for doing so were ‘completely unsupported’, and that Major Brezler was ‘completely deprived . . . of any meaningful opportunity’ to rebut critical claims,” Bowe, Brezler’s attorney, said.
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