President-elect Trump's transition team is compiling a list of US military officials directly involved in the withdrawal of Afghanistan to explore whether or not they could be court-martialed for charges as serious as treason, NBC reported on Sunday.
A US official and a person with knowledge of the plan said that the incoming Trump administration is considering creating a commission to investigate the US military's 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. The commission would gather information about individuals who planned the maneuver, investigate how it was executed, and what charges military leaders could be dealt with.
“They’re taking it very seriously,” the unnamed person knowledgeable about the plan told NBC.
The Trump transition team did not respond to NBC's request for comment.
The effort is reportedly being framed as an all-encompassing review of how the US first became engaged in combat in Afghanistan and how it ultimately withdrew.
Leadership of the effort
NBC reported that Matt Flynn, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for counternarcotics and global threats, will partially lead the endeavor.
“Matt Flynn has nothing to do with the Trump transition team, much less leading any review concerning military justice matters,” said Flynn’s attorney, Mark S. Zaid, as reported by NBC
Zaid further wrote in a statement that “no one has sought out Mr. Flynn’s views on this hypothetical legal scenario.”