deesh ewe. civilians and soldiers are reported among the dead. al shabab has claimed responsibility for that attack. there s new controversy surrounding the u.s. navy s.e.a.l. whose court-ordered punishment was reversed by president trump. the new york times has obtained video of his former platoon members describing him in grim terms to investigators. our barbara starr has the details and we warn you going into this report, it contains disturbing images. members of s.e.a.l. team 7 alpha platoon broke their own code of silence in 2018 with their opinions about retired special operations chief eddie gallagher and some making accusations that the elite s.e.a.l. committed murder and potential war crimes. the guy got crazier and crazier. these are portions of recorded navy s.e.a.l. interviews published by the new york times. where team members tell investigators their views on the
president trump s decision to intervene in the case of navy s.e.a.l. eddie gallagher has been a controversial one. gallagher was accused of war crimes but acquitted of premeditated murder and murder and obstruction of justice. and convicted of posing with a body of a teenage insurgent in iraq and the president made sure he kept niz navy s.e.a.l. trident pin. they met at mar-a-lago. but a report in the new york times marks the president s decision as all of the more controversial. cnn s barbara starr has the story and first i have to warn you, there are disturbing images in this report. reporter: members of s.e.a.l. team seven alpha platoon broke their own code of silence in 2018 with their opinions about
team seven alpha platoon broke their own code of silence in 2018 with their opinions about retired special operations chief eddie gallagher and some making accusations that the elite s.e.a.l. committed murder and potential war crimes. the guy got crazier and crazier. reporter: these are portions of recorded navy s.e.a.l. interviews published by the new york times. where team members tell investigators their views on the platoon leader. the guy was toxic. [ bleep ]. reporter: eddie gallagher was acquitted of premeditated murder when another officer said he caused the prison s death, not gallagher. did you suffocate him? yes. how? i held my thumb over his etg. he said it was an act of
about what gallagher did. they were talking to investigators in a pre-trial environment. they were called in to talk to investigators. this isn t necessarily breaking public silence. when we talk about the code of silence for the s.e.a.l.s and they are a quiet, insular bunch. but there s also a code of honor. just like every other member of the military they have an obligation when they he see something awry to report it, to try to stop it and report it. that s what they did. they came forward and said what they believed were gallagher s misdeeds. they had strong comments about his character as well. it wasn t easy for them to do this. if you look at the text messages that the new york times showed it s clear they simply want to tell the truth. there was no coordination of their stories or anything like that in terms of nailing down details. they said let s tell truth. that s noteworthy. how do they recover from this they will recover. it s important to say right off
these are interview obtained by the new york times of alpha platoon seal team 7 members, breaking an unwritten code of silence in 2018 by taking on their chief of their platoon, who was eventually tried for war crimes. here s a taste. he s a psychopath. the guy got crazier and crazier. the guy is toxic. we can t let this continue. that s friggin evil, man. these are not from now, not sworn, not cross-examined. nerp they were an early part of the investigation. mr. gallagher was acquitted of war crimes, including killing an isis prisoner. he was only acquitted for posing for photos with a dead body. that s when the president intervened. why? he reversed the demotion and let