A three-officer panel at Guantanamo Bay convicted disgraced former General Mark A. Milley of treason and sentenced him to hang after a military tribunal that saw Vice Adm. Darse E. Crandall lose his cool to Milley’s provocative spurs.
The first occurred as military police escorted Milley, wearing an orange jumpsuit instead of a pressed uniform bristling with unearned medals, into court and secured his wrists and ankles to anchors bolted onto the defense table and floor. Milley nodded, smirked at the admiral, and said, “Nice to see you again, Del,” as he is known to friends and family.
Adm. Crandall bit his lip. “Admiral or your honor is acceptable, detainee Milley.”
But Milley goaded him more. “It never bothered you before. Isn’t that what Barbara calls you?”
Barbara Puckett is the admiral’s wife. They married in 1986 and have three children.
The admiral said veiled threats were “a dime a dozen,” spoken by men who had more significant influence over the Deep State than had Milley. He gave Milley a familiar ultimatum: either remain silent or wear a gag for the duration of the tribunal. The disgraced general’s voice softened to the timbre he had often used at public appearances and television interviews.
Standing for himself—he had dismissed his JAG-appointed counsel—Milley stood chained before the panel and delivered an opening statement in which he proclaimed his innocence and regurgitated the implausible defense he gave at the time of his arrest and interrogations—that he was secretly working for President Trump in their mission to expose Deep Staters in the U.S. military. He explained that Trump approached him with a clandestine job as J6 unfolded. Trump, Milley said, had evidence proving high-ranking officers, people like Vice Adm. Hannink and Gen. Berger, were feigning patriotism while undermining Trump’s presidency.
“This man accuses me of treason, of being a traitor. He is the traitor!” Milley said, pointing at Adm. Crandall. As officers yourself, certainly you understand the need for secrecy, for compartmentalization, and obeying without question your commander in chief. That’s what I did. It’s what I’m doing. President Trump made it perfectly clear the mission was so secret, that he’d disavow knowledge of it or our arrangement if anything went wrong. I understood. And I followed orders.”
“So, let’s get this straight. While my predecessor was prosecuting Hillary Clinton, and you don’t get more Deep State than her, he was actually working for the Deep State? And when Gen. Berger was kidnapped by CIA-aligned Deep Staters and drugged and beaten to an inch of his life, he, too, was in fact working for the Deep State? Is that what you expect this panel to believe?”
“Frankly, what they believe isn’t my concern. It’s the truth that matters. If you want more details, you’ll have to ask President Trump,” Milley retorted.
“President Trump is a busy man these days. He couldn’t be here today, but he did prerecord a video for the panel,” the admiral said.
The president’s face appeared on a viewing screen. “If I could be there today, I would, to testify against Mark Milley, a coward and the worst general this country has ever seen. He is a disgrace. He betrayed his president and a nation. On January 6 he showed the world who he really was when he sided with Nancy Pelosi and Pence. He called CHINA to say Sleepy Joe Biden was the real president and that I was going to send NUKES over there. What sense does that make? Why would I launch nukes on China because of a stolen election here. Milley, and I don’t like saying his name at all, ran to that communist hack of a writer Bob Woodward and made-up stories that never happened. And now I understand he’s still making up stories that he’s been working for me in secret going after the Deep State Department. He’s either a terrible liar or delusional, and probably both. I gave Milley plenty of chances, and he betrayed me every time. He wasn’t working for me. He’s been working for Biden, Lloyd Austin, and Merrick Garland. He’s a never-Trumper and was trying to fill the military, which I did more for than any other president, with traitors. I categorically swear under God that he’s traitor a traitor and hates the Constitution no matter what he says.”
President Trump’s final comment: “If it were up to me, he’d be executed.”
“Detainee Milley, you’re not vaccinated against COVID-19, are you?” asked the admiral.
Milley said the question was rhetorical because JAG had “forcefully” drawn his blood at a processing center.
“When Lloyd Austin issued his and Biden’s vaccine mandate, you backed him, didn’t you? You even recommended dishonorable discharges for any Armed Forces member refusing? And you said dependents of service members, including children, should be evicted if they lived in on-post housing and denied benefits like health care and maintenance medications, did you not?”
“I seem to remember endorsing those ideas, but I don’t recall if they were mine or Lloyd’s,” Milley replied candidly.
“But you never got jabbed? Not even once? Not a single jab?”
Milley objected to using the word ‘jab,’ saying it maligned a life-saving vaccine nearly every medical professional worldwide endorsed.
“You sound more like Dr. Fauci than a lifer,” the admiral said. “Would you care to say why you refused the jab?”
“I refused nothing. I am unvaccinated because it’s part of the plan, President Trump’s plan,” Milley said.
“What of Austin? Is he part of the president’s plan?” Adm. Crandall asked.
“I cannot confirm or deny that which I know nothing about. You’d better ask President Trump if you want coherent details,” Milley said.
“Is that going to be your answer to every question, it was Trump’s plan?” asked the admiral.
Milley yawned. “I don’t feel much like talking anymore.”
Admiral Crandall showed the panel emails Milley had sent to Austin. In one, Milley referred to unvaccinated service members as “un-American Trumpists” and “liabilities.” He wrote he was in favor of discharging or court-martialing every vaccine-denialist in the Armed Forces.
“The defendant is one confused individual,” the admiral addressed the panel. “He knew the vaccine killed, and was particularly dangerous to young men, but he wanted them all kicked out and replaced with soldiers happy to get vaccinated. It strikes me he was hoping to kill off the military, literally.”
Milley stayed silent.
“And then we have this,” said the admiral, reading from Milley’s writings. “As you know, Lloyd, I’ll be retiring soon. I’ll probably have to take a permanent vacation at our friend’s place, but I don’t want it to be on a general’s retirement plan. I deserve more.
“It always boils down to fiat currency,” Adm. Crandall went on. “We’ve observed a recurring theme in recent convictions: appointed and elected officials endorsing vaccines or cash to Ukraine getting healthy, undeclared, illegal kickbacks. Milley’s no exception. If we didn’t catch him when we did, he’d be schmoozing it up with Zelenskyy right now.”
He displayed copies of an airline receipt and confirmation number, scheduled to depart D.C. for Warsaw on Sept 28, three days after his arrest. “In which case he’d be over there, and we’d be chasing his doubles or Deep Fake likeness around the country. If he wasn’t a coward, he’d admit he hates President Trump. He’d be proud of it. He’d relish and boast that hatred as he did privately with his Deep State friends.”
“It’s not a good day for fishing,” Milley said.
But Adm. Crandall didn’t have to fish. He had a plethora of digital documents, many e-signed by the defendant, covering Milley’s interactions with Deep Staters at home and abroad, including personal correspondence with Zelenskyy, French Chief of Defense Thierry Buckhard, and Canadian Army Chief of the Jocelyn Paul, detailing plans to convince their respective governments to slash military funding and use the funds to purchase vaccines or send to Ukraine. The admiral also had a video of Milley and a Milley body double meeting with the Bidens in Delaware on October 2, 2020, a month before the election, with Milley telling Biden, “If we can’t get rid of Trump one way, and God knows we’ve tried, we’ll do it another, and make him wish he was dead. Your presidency, future President Joseph Biden, commander in chief of the Armed Forces, is guaranteed. Your presidency, his vision.”
“You’ll regret what’s happening here today,” Milley said. “Zelenskyy is a good guy, a White Hat, as you say. Remember when President Trump said he and Zelenskyy had a ‘perfect call’? He was signaling that Zelenskyy’s a good guy, like me.”
The panel disagreed, deliberating only 15 minutes before finding Milley guilty of treason and condemning him to hang by the neck until dead.
“You can’t do this to me; I’m a general,” Milley protested.
“Not anymore,” replied the admiral.
Afterward, Adm. Crandall commented that Milley was once an exemplary officer, ultimately consumed by madness and unappeasable greed.