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Evan Liberty, one of four former Blackwater contractors pardoned by President Trump
Donald Trump Trump calls Georgia Senate second round ‘both illegal and invalid’ in New Year’s tweets Judge dismisses Gohmert’s election lawsuit against Pence Former GOP senator suggests forming new party and calls Trump the Republicans’ “ master of the track ” MORE last month for their role in the killings of more than a dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007, said in his first interview since leaving prison that he believed he had “done the right thing.”
Liberty, whose nearly 30-year sentence was cut in half last year, said The Associated Press this week, that his actions were justifiable, adding that he and the other contractors “reacted to a threat accordingly.”
“I feel like I did the right thing,” he said of the 2007 incident. “I regret any innocent loss of life, but I’m just confident in the way I am. took action and I can basically feel at peace with it.
Blackwater guards continued to argue that they were the target of insurgent fire, although prosecutors claimed there was no evidence to support this account, as many victims were shot dead while in their car at the roundabout where the shooting took place or trying to flee. the scene.
A 2014 jury convicted Liberty, along with Dustin Heard, Nicholas Slatten and Paul Slough, of the deaths of 14 Iraqi civilians and the injuries of several others, with the judge in the case calling the shootings a “wild thing” that cannot be accepted.
The Blackwater firm, whose name has since been changed to Academy, was founded by former Navy SEAL Erik Prince, whose sister, Betsy DeVos
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Several groups have condemned Trump’s pardon for Blackwater contractors, pointing out that Trump was using presidential power historically reserved for non-violent crimes. Moreover, as the PA noted, the traditional forgiveness process led by the Justice Department values the acceptance of responsibility and remorse of those convicted.
The United Nations Task Force on the Use of Mercenaries said on Wednesday Trump forgives contractors violated international law.
“The forgiveness of the Blackwater entrepreneurs is an affront to justice and to the victims of the Nisour Square massacre and their families,” group president Jelena Aparac said, according to Reuters.
In a joint statement obtained by Reuters, retired General David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, top US officials in charge of US policy in Iraq at the time of the 2007 murders, called the pardons “very damaging, an action that tells the world that Americans abroad can commit the most heinous crimes with impunity.
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