The US Army denied the restoration of medals and the right to wear Special Forces insignia for a retired officer who was pardoned by Donald Trump for his role in the murder of a Afghan man he suspected was a Taliban bomb maker, USA Today reports.

Retired Major Mathew Golsteyn originally admitted that he helped to defile the body of a man suspected of making a bomb that killed two men under Golsteyn’s command in Afghanistan in 2010.  Golsteyn originally claimed that he had nothing to do with the man’s death, but during a lie detector test conducted by the CIA, Golsteyn admitted to killing the man himself.

In 2016, a year after retiring from the military, while appearing on a Fox News show, Golsteyn said he killed the man himself.  His admission on television led to the military to re-open an investigation into the event.

Golsteyn received a pardon from Donald Trump in November 2019, effectively closing the military investigation into the incident.  However, the Army had previously rescinded a Silver Star awarded to Golsteyn and denied him the right to wear a “Special Forces” tab even though he had served in the Green Berets. 

Trump’s pardon was poorly written and though it cleared Golsteyn of any legal responsibility in the Afghan murder, it did not preserve his previous honors and rank.  The honors had been rescinded during the course of the investigation in 2015, and the Army denied a request to reinstate the honors after Trump issued his pardon, a fact that was apparently kept from Trump while he was president.