In 2019, when conservative influencers started pushing the case of Eddie Gallagher as a cause celebre in an obvious bid to gain the attention of the president, it seemed incredibly brazen and cynical to me at the time. The evidence against him seemed substantial and it was clear many in his own unit were horrified by him.

Was it really possible, I naively thought, to sell a man giving a 17-year-old detainee a tracheotomy with a hunting knife, then posing with his corpse, to a conservative audience, as a case of pantywaist military bureaucrats stringing up one of the real “warfighters” over some irrelevant scruple?

It turns out it’s totally possible. It worked, thanks to assists from Bernie Kerik, who was pardoned by Trump himself, Pete Hegseth, and some of the shadiest orbiters of Trumpland.

As of last week, Eddie Gallagher has given an interview contradicting some of the key arguments of his legal defense. According to Gallagher, they weren’t actually trying to give him medical assistance at all, just perform “medical treatment on him until he’s gone.” From Task and Purpose’s report:

“Everybody knew what was going on,” Gallagher said. “It’s the only truthful thing to this whole process; and then the rest of it just is like a bunch of contorted lies to, like, pin that whole scenario on me.”

“I didn’t stab him,” Gallagher continued. “I didn’t stab that dude. That dude died from all the medical treatments that were done – and there was plenty of medical treatments that were done to him.”

When asked why he cut an emergency airway in the ISIS fighter’s throat, Gallagher replied: “Just for practice. I was practicing to see how fast I could do one in.”

Gallagher said he didn’t tell his leadership about how the ISIS fighter had died when it became clear that he could be prosecuted for it.

“At that point, my intuition kicked in and I was like: I’m not talking to anybody about – even though I’m, like, innocent, I knew to keep my mouth shut.”

It’s inexplicable why he would go and say this, after having been vindicated in court and being seen as a hero to not a few conservatives.

The president intervened in several ways during the case, first to transfer him to more comfortable detention. After he was acquitted on all but the charge of posing with the corpse, the Chief of Naval Operations accepted Gallagher’s clemency request and reduced the demotion to a single rank. But that wasn’t enough for Gallagher’s influencer friends, and evidently not enough for Trump, who tweeted that he wasn’t going to let that happen. After an absurd spectacle that resulted in the firing of the Secretary of the Navy, the president ordered the Secretary of Defense to let Gallagher keep his trident pin until his retirement.

It was an ugly spectacle all around, all the more so given Gallagher’s recent admission. Trump shouldn’t have allowed himself to be drawn into it, and as far as battles with the “deep state” go this one is a blind alley. Gallagher’s book is out next month, I’m sure you’ll be able to catch him on Fox & Friends.