The Greeley Gazette reports that:
A retired JAG officer with over 23 years of experience, says the military judge who ruled against discovery for a Greeley Army officer may have derailed the government’s case based on precedent from another high profile case involving a military officer.
Lt. Col John Eidsmoe, a retired Air Force officer who works for former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore at the Foundation for Moral Law, said Lakin is “raising legitimate constitutional questions” regarding President Obama’s eligibility to be commander-in-chief.
In what appears to be another mischaracterization the paper further reports:
In issuing the decision, Lind said Lakin would not be permitted to call witnesses because it has the “potential for embarrassment” of the President. Margaret Hemenway, spokeswoman for Col. Lakin, said the judge appeared to imply Lakin could be a racist by asking if this would be happening if Bush were the commander-in-chief.
In the decision the government stated that even if Obama is not eligible it would not matter and all actions taken by the president would still be valid. They also state that Lakin is “duty bound to follow the lawful orders of his superiors even if the eligibility of the President under the constitution is later found deficient.” The issue of the president’s birthplace is outweighed by “the danger of confusing the issues” according to prosecutors.
Eidsmoe said these statements could possibly cause problems for the government’s case based on precedent set in another recent high profile case involving Lt. Col. Michael Murphy. . . . Eidsmoe said the circumstances in the Murphy case are very similar to Lakin’s case with the refusal to allow documents and witnesses related to the President’s eligibility.
Umm, was not Lt. Col. Murphy actually colonel at the time of his prosecution.
Here is a link to the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals decision in United States v. Murphy, an Article 62, UCMJ, appeal.
The issue in Colonel Murphy’s case was getting access to information about his work at the White House to be used for a good character defense. As military practitioner’s know it is very common to put on a “good Soldier” defense on the merits if possible and certainly for sentencing. I would argue that is substantially different than LTC Lakin’s issues and why he wants discovery.
LtCol. Eidsmore appears to be a member of the Air Force Reserve and a Colonel (and a chaplain) in the Alabama State Defense Force. Can anyone confirm that citizensforaconstitutionalrepublic.com is LtCol Eidsmoe’s website? A great deal of very interesting information can be found using Google.