julie. final question. i would like for my husband to have the first christmas in the last eight without the army, this cloud hanging over his head, when he did nothing wrong. i would like for us to be able to enjoy the holidays with our newborn. and by the way, it s not only how it looks to our men and women over there. our enemy is also seeing this. we re going to leave it there. julie goldstein, i appreciate you coming on. thank you. phillip stackhouse, thank you very much. we ll stay on it and stay in contact with both of you. thank you for being with me. i m brooke baldwin. the lead with jake tapper starts right now. so mission accomplished? the lead starts now. caught by surprise. top officials at the white house, the pentagon, members of congress, u.s. allies, pretty much everyone, stunned as president trump announces via twitter he s ready to pull u.s. troops from syria because isis has been defeated. but just a week ago, the
five years later, he made the confession again on fox news, prompting a second investigation. did you find the suspected taliban bomb maker? we did capture a fighter and then i.d. material, weapons. we recovered radios that the taliban were using. so quite a bit of material. but at the time, you think this is the guy. yeah, absolutely. it is an inevitable outcome that people who are cooperating with the coalition forces, when identified, will suffer terrible torture or be killed. did you kill the taliban bomb maker? yes. last week the army charged goldstein with murder. he could face the death penalty. the president saw a reairing of that interview on fox news and tweeted he would review goldstein s case. but some legal experts say the president is unlawfully interfering in the judicial process. so his wife, julie and his
attorney, phillip stackhouse, are with me now. welcome to both of you. thank you. thanks. julie, let me start with matt, your husband. graduated from west point. goes on to become this elite green beret, awarded the nation s third-highest award for valor. what did serving this country mean for your husband? i think it meant everything to him. when people thank him for his service now, matt says it was a great honor. and i would have done it for free. hmmm. let s go back through all of this and phillip, i turn to you for this. so let s go back to 2010. major goldstein was commanding soldiers in afghanistan and this roadside bomb killed two marines who had been working with him. and so according to these reports, major goldstein eventually finds this taliban bomb maker who he believes is responsible. so phillip, tell me what goldstein did next, which led to the death of this taliban bomb maker. well, all of this is reported
i understand that. and i understand the case was closed and they didn t bring those charges. but obviously something changed after he went on with fox and spoke with brett. and that is when the army then decided to reopen the case and now, julie can i also point out i would also like to point out he had a point of inquiry in 2015. and they had a general discharge recommended to them, which no one would sign off on, and he also had a medical retirement. they left him, you know, stranded out hanging out in the wind for over a year. so why do you think they re doing this now? that s a very, very good question. charged him with murder? that s a very good question. and that s what the army has to answer. i know that there are concerns depending on how this goes, how this might look, what message this may send to the 14,000 american forces still in afghanistan. to the afghans over there about justice. i also know that you have a baby at home. i know it s the holidays. i kno
edited by fox. and julie, i wanted to get you in, but i know we need to speak with a lawyer about what was going on at the time. sure. julie, when the army then reopens the case because he says what he does on fox and he answers, you know, truthfully that he did kill this taliban bomb maker, how worried were you for your husband? i m worried for him in some sense because it s wrong. but i m not worried, because he didn t do anything wrong. and you are mischaracterizing the situation by saying that he did break the rules of engagement. the army s own panel found in 2015 that he, in fact, did not break the rules of engagement. correct, phil? that s exactly right. i mean, you know, at that hearing, the regimental commander from combat team 7 testified, and the commanding general in charge of second marine expeditionary brigade testified for matt, absent any army leadership. but the ones that were controlling combat operations in afghanistan with matt both testified for matt. both