How the Pentagon sidelined lawyers while testing the legal limits of military action

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

How the Pentagon sidelined lawyers while testing the legal limits of military action

Oct 15, 2025
PUBLISHED Oct 15, 2025, 5:00 AM ET
By Natasha Bertrand

For weeks earlier this year, the Army’s top uniformed lawyer had been raising legal concerns inside the Pentagon about some of the new policies being rolled out dictating how the military can be used and staffed.

In late January, Lt. Gen. Joe Berger, who had taken the top posting in July 2024, was asked for his advice about the legality of using Texas National Guard soldiers for immigration enforcement. Berger told Army chief of staff Gen. Randy George that he was skeptical and wanted more information about whether the soldiers were properly trained for that kind of mission, according to a former senior defense official and another person familiar with his actions.

He was told by the department’s acting general counsel, Charlie Young, to stop meddling in state affairs, the sources said.

Then, in early February, Berger and his team began asking questions of civilian leaders about the legality of firing huge swaths of probationary Defense Department employees, which was being pushed at the time by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. Defense officials across the services were raising concerns that the summary firings could break the law and potentially harm the US military’s ability to fight.

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Read more: https://us.cnn.com/2025/10/15/politics/pentagon-lawyers-sidelined-jags

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Hegseth fired all senior JAG officers in order to be able to violate the law

Trump's first “Friday Night Massacre” targeted inspectors general and his second targeted judge advocates general. The war on accountability continues.

Hegseth: We don’t want any lawyers that might be obstacles to anything that might “happen”.

Sounds legit to me. 😳

Hegseth defends JAG firings in the most unpersuasive way possible - MSNBC

— ELying (@muskow.bsky.social) 2025-02-24T20:46:34.365Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/hegseth-defends-jag-firings-unpersuasive-way-possible-rcna193423

In case these dubious terminations weren’t enough, the Trump administration also announced around the same time that it’s firing the top lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force. In fact, Steve Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University, wrote via Bluesky that firing these judge advocates general (JAGs) “is just as bad as, if not worse” than Trump’s other Friday night firings.

In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former Army paratrooper, helped explain why:

Firing the military’s most senior legal advisers is an unprecedented and explicit move to install officers who will yield to the president’s interpretation of the law, with the expectation they will be little more than yes men on the most consequential questions of military law.

Hegseth and trump want to convert the military into a force loyal only to trump. It sounds like trump and Hegseth plan to commit acts that a real JAG would block as being an illegal order or unconstitutional

It was against this backdrop that Hegseth appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and was asked to explain the move. His answer was far from reassuring.
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3liu3tpbfhs2h

Link to tweet

“Ultimately, we want lawyers who give sound constitutional advice and don’t exist to attempt to be roadblocks to anything that happens,” the Pentagon chief said.

Hmm. In other words, the secretary of defense believes there might be things that “happen,” and he’s concerned that the top lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force might get in the way.

For those keeping a “saying the quiet part loud” list, it’s probably worth filing this quote away for future reference.

As for the larger context, it’s also worth emphasizing the apparent fact that Team Trump appears to be taking steps to eliminate watchdogs from the federal government. Indeed, the president’s first “Friday Night Massacre” targeted inspectors general, and his second targeted, among others, judge advocates general.

A few weeks ago, The New York Times published an editorial that argued the Republican White House “is moving to eliminate the tools of accountability in government in quick order.”

Hegseth and trump want to convert the military into trump's praetorian guard. Hegseth wants a JAG corp that will not question any actions taken by trump or which will declare any orders given by trump to be illegal.