Trump Announces ‘Review' of Green Beret Murder Case: ‘We Train Our Boys to Be Killing Machines'

Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, a decorated Green Beret, is facing court-martial in the killing of an Afghan man he suspected of being a Taliban bomb maker

President Donald Trump used Twitter on Saturday morning to come to the defense of an army officer charged with murder and said the man's case was now under review at the White House, NBC News reported.

Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, a decorated Green Beret, is charged with committing premeditated murder of an Afghan man he suspected of being a Taliban bomb maker on Feb. 22, 2010, while deployed near Forward Operating base McQuery in Marjah, Afghanistan.

A conviction of premeditated murder carries a maximum penalty of death.

Golsteyn disclosed the shooting during a CIA polygraph test. He was applying for a job at the spy agency and admitted to killing the man, who he claimed was a suspected Taliban bomb maker, military officials said when the officer was charged.

"Mathew is a highly decorated Green Beret who is being tried for killing a Taliban bombmaker," Trump tweeted. "We train our boys to be killing machines, then prosecute them when they kill!"

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