MRFF Quickly Exposes Army National Guard Chaplain for Accusing Joint Chiefs-of-Staff of Sedition and Posting Numerous QAnon Style Political Conspiracies
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This post was created on the previous version of the MRFF website, and may not be fully accessible to users of assistive technology. If you need help accessing this content, please reach out via email.January 29, 2021
A MRFF client (and active duty Army Captain) emailed President/Founder Mikey Weinstein on January 28, 2021 requesting assistance with exposing and responding to a Chaplain in the Ohio National Guard who:
… has publicly spoken out against DoD officials for issuing the recent memo on the Capitol riot, claiming sedition by the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and
… acquaints the Democratic Party, Liberals, and anyone who disagrees with conservative values, to the devil and the Nazis. Consistently using the term Demoncrat, Antichrist, and false prophets.
After careful vetting of the reported public postings from Army National Guard Chaplain (1st Lt.) Christopher M. Boyd’s Facebook posts, MRFF quickly shared this information with media outlets and submitted a letter to the Ohio Adjutant General, Major General John C. Harris, Jr., demanding that
Chaplain (1st Lt.) Boyd be court-martialed.
Danea King of The Columbus Dispatch reported on January 29, 2021:
Chris Boyd, of Montpelier in northwest Ohio, posted a letter sent by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Jan. 12 on his Facebook page and called the letter “deceptively seditious,” according to screenshots provided by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. He added that the Joint Chiefs are scared or “in bed with the left.”
The letter from the Joint Chiefs of Staff reminds those in the armed forces that they support and defend the Constitution following the Capitol riot. It also mentions that President Joe Biden will become their commander in chief.
Boyd also wrote that “democrats (sic) ruin everything. They steal your money. They steal our election. They murder children.”
In another post, Boyd wrote that he thinks the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was done by “leftist politicians” who were “imitating what they think represents republicans (sic).”
Donald Rehkopf Jr., one of the foundation’s [MRFF] attorneys and a military law expert, believes Boyd’s posts violate five articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including contempt toward officials, disrespect toward a superior commissioned officer, mutiny or sedition, and conduct unbecoming of an officer. “It shows a terrible lack of understanding of what it means to be an officer in today’s military,” said Rehkopf, who served himself. “We represent everybody in America … An officer has to have a significant amount of tolerance.”
This article from The Columbus Dispatch included screen-shots, provided by MRFF, of several Facebook post from Chaplain (1st Lt.) Boyd. A list of the abhorrent and fact-free QAnon/ChristianFascist style musings and accusations from Army Chaplain Boyd are posted at https://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/MG-Harris-letter-1-29-21.pdf as attachments to MRFF’s letter to Ohio Adjutant General, Major General John C. Harris, Jr. with the following demand:
MRFF demands that you immediately, expeditiously, and comprehensively investigate this miserably sordid matter. Further, sir, MRFF demands that, as soon as the incontrovertible evidence MRFF has provided you with herein is officially substantiated, you aggressively and publicly prosecute Chaplain (1st Lt.) Boyd, via trial by General Court Martial, to the full extent of military law for what most certainly appear to be any number of irrefutable, incontestable, and flagrant felonies under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
A copy of MRFF’s demand letter to the Ohio Adjutant General was provided to:
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin
Acting Secretary of the ArmyJohn Whitley
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley
Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman General John Hyten
National Guard Bureau Chief General Daniel Hokanson
U.S. Army Chief of Staff General James McConnville
U.S. Army Chief of Chaplains Major General Thomas Solhjem
The Columbus Dispatch article was picked up by Stars & Stripes and an additional article by Paul Szoldra was posted to Task & Purpose on January 31, 2021. Mark Pitcavage (Senior Research Fellow, Center on Extremism, Anti-Defamation League[ADL]) tweeted the Stars & Stripes link. In addition to currently working with the ADL, Mr. Pitcavage founded the Militia Watchdog website following the Oklahoma City bombing.
With the success of the Militia Watchdog project, Pitcavage was made the Director of Investigative Research for the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training Program (SLATT). SLATT is an FBI domestic intelligence gathering apparatus that uses both paid and unpaid informants, primarily from organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and The Center for New Community. The SLATT program is funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) of the U.S. Department of Justice.
The ADL absorbed Pitcavage’s Militia Watchdog group and now maintains the site as an archive of his work between 1995 and 2000.
(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Pitcavage#Militia_Watchdog)
On February 1, 2021, Danea King of The Columbus Dispatch further reported that:
An Ohio Army National Guard lieutenant’s application to be a military chaplain has been suspended while officials investigate allegations against him. Stephanie Beougher, spokeswoman for the [Ohio] Adjutant General’s office, said in an email to The Dispatch that the office is reviewing the allegations and determining the appropriate action. She also said Boyd isn’t a chaplain, as previously reported, but a chaplain candidate “going through the training and vetting process.” There are several requirements to become a chaplain, including being ordained and in good standing with his or her denomination. “His candidacy has been put on hold at this time,” Beougher said in a statement.
Mikey/MRFF quickly pointed out to The Columbus Dispatch the somewhat absurd obfuscation behind the statement issued by the Ohio Adjutant General’s office:
“[Army National Guard Chaplain (1st Lt.) Christopher M. Boyd] He is still receiving [taxpayer] money, he still took the oath, he’s still wearing the uniform … He has just accused the highest military leaders of this country” of sedition. “If he is not going to be tried aggressively and visibly and publicly by a general court martial, then the military should take a torch to the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) and sweep up the ashes and throw them away,” Weinstein said.
He needs to be punished, Weinstein said.
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