While none of us were there when former US Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance allegedly ordered his men to shoot at three unarmed men on a motorcycle in Afghanistan in 2012, killing two of them, there were nine of his fellow soldiers willing to testify against him in the trial that ultimately got him convicted of war crimes.
Some said he tried to cover up what he did. Lorance said he was just protecting his fellow soldiers and did what anyone would have done given the circumstances. That was apparently enough to convince President Trump, who chose to override the trusted military justice system that convicted Lorance and grant him clemency.
But in a since-deleted tweet from this Thursday, Lorance complained that the dishonorable discharge that’s still on his record “makes it impossible to find a job. Even at Walmart or Target,” adding that Trump “told me my record would be expunged,” but White House staff “must have disagreed.”
“This will be an uphill battle,” he continued.
In his tweet, he included an apparent email from Target rejecting his job application.
As Business Insider points out, Lorance has advocated for other soldiers convicted of war crimes. Speaking to Fox & Friends last month, he accused military leaders of making decisions based on politics.
“And so I think they lose some of their values, and they certainly lose a lot of their respect from their subordinates when they do what they did to me, which was, you know, throw me under the bus,” he said.
Featured image via screen grab/Fox News
