Trump pardons former Army officer court-martialed for refusing COVID shot, rules
President Trump on Thursday pardoned a former Army officer who was convicted by a military court martial for refusing to follow the Pentagon’s COVID-19 safety rules.
Former Lt. Mark Bashaw was discharged from the Army in 2022 during the Biden administration after he would not take the COVID-19 shot and then refused to work remotely. Bashaw also would not submit a coronavirus test before reporting for office, and he would not wear a face mask indoors.
The Pentagon had required such measures of all service members should they decline the mandated vaccine, and Bashaw was found guilty by a military judge for failing to comply.
But Trump on Thursday pardoned Bashaw along with a slew of other individuals, including a former Chicago gang leader and reality TV stars convicted on tax evasion and bank fraud charges.
Starting in August 2021, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin required the COVID-19 shot for troops, sailors and airmen, arguing at the time that the mandate was critical to keeping U.S. forces healthy and ready to fight. The Pentagon later dropped the rule in January 2023 as the pandemic waned.
The mandate forced out thousands of service members who were involuntarily discharged after refusing the shot, but Bashaw — at the time company commander of the Army Public Health Center’s headquarters at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. — marked the first service member to be tried by a court martial over the Pentagon’s rules.
He claimed the court martial happened because he “refused to participate with lies,” according to a 2023 post to social platform X.
Though the judge who oversaw his trial didn’t hand down any punishment, the conviction gave Bashaw a criminal record. Trump’s pardon wipes out that record.
Weeks after his inauguration, Trump took executive action in January to begin reinstating service members who refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine as mandated by the Defense Department under former President Biden.
Trump in a Jan. 27 executive order stipulated that the booted service members could be brought back with full back pay and benefits, with an easier medical screening.
The Pentagon last month started to try to woo back to the military the service members who left.
“They never should have had to leave military service, and the department is committed to assisting them in their return,” said Tim Dill, the Defense Department’s acting deputy undersecretary of personnel and readiness.
The former military members dismissed from the ranks have the option to be reinstated, but it’s unclear how successful the effort will be given that the military branches found that many of the veterans who left had moved on with their lives. As of early April, only about 100 of the more than 8,700 individuals ousted chose to rejoin.
It is not clear if Bashaw is seeking to be reinstated.
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