Marine jailed for criticizing generals finally freed
Jailed Marine's attorney speaks in exclusive with Laura Ingraham: His message still rings true, but so far, he is the only one in the military who has been held accountable, and it's just not right.
Hours after Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jr. was released from the brig at a Jacksonville, N.C., Marine base, his attorney told Fox News his client remains under a dubious gag order and is obviously being "made an example" of by his "punitive" superiors.
Scheller has yet to be formally charged, but spent a week in confinement inside Camp Lejeune, where he previously was an infantry battalion commander at the sprawling base near North Carolina's Bogue Banks seashore.
Attorney Tony Buzbee told "The Ingraham Angle" that the gag order Scheller remains under is in his mind "illegal" and that it was Scheller's personal speech that landed him in the Lejeune brig to begin with.
"He spoke out as you saw and he said many service members both former like myself and current believed – which is the withdrawal from Afghanistan was completely botched and no one took accountability," Buzbee said.
"You have the general staff, the high brass, basically trying to pass the buck – and so he spoke out."
Buzbee said Scheller also offered to resign honorably – but was denied by the Marine Corps.
"Here’s a guy now that has lost his command, his job, his health care and his pension. We are talking about more than $2.5 million dollars of retirement that he is essentially going to have to walk away from," said Buzbee, who previously ran for mayor of Houston.
Buzbee said Scheller's case is a stark example of the blowback servicemembers receive when their opinions upset high-ranking officers:
"He was considered to be in ‘flight risk’ which is ridiculous -- This is the state of affairs as they are now: Once you hurt the general’s feelings, they are punitive – and that’s where it is," he said, adding he is hoping a tentative hearing will go on next Friday.
Buzbee further claimed Secretary of the Navy Cmdr. Carlos Del Toro [Ret.], a Biden appointee, could unilaterally release him from the Marine Corps without forcing him to go through with court-martial proceedings.
Del Toro could "let him be honorably discharged and go about his business," Buzbee claimed.