Lt. Col. Loren Bymer, a spokesman for Army Special Operations Command, confirmed the charge was read to Golsteyn. A hearing has not yet been scheduled, Bymer said.

AD

AD

The prosecution marks the latest twist in the fall of a man who at one point was a highly decorated soldier. It also comes amid a string of other cases in which Special Operations veterans are accused of carrying out serious crimes, including a Navy SEAL who has been charged with murder in the alleged execution of an unarmed Islamic State militant in Iraq and two SEALs and two Marine Raiders who have been charged with murder in the death of a Special Forces soldier in Mali.

Stackhouse has maintained that Army investigators exaggerated what Golsteyn said in the CIA job interview. He indicated Thursday that he and Golsteyn will fight the charge.

Golsteyn, a 2002 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., led a team from the 3rd Special Forces Group in the Battle of Marja in 2010, earning a Silver Star for his valor.

AD

AD

On Feb. 20, 2010, he repeatedly braved enemy fire after watching a Taliban sniper nearly hit a nearby Marine, launching a mission to kill the enemy marksman and coordinating numerous airstrikes, according to a military summary of his actions.

Two days earlier, two Marines working with Golsteyn’s unit — Sgt. Jeremy R. McQueary, 27, and Lance Cpl. Larry M. Johnson, 19 — were killed by improvised explosives. According to Army documents obtained by The Washington Post, Golsteyn later recounted during the job interview that afterward he and his soldiers began searching homes nearby and eventually found materials needed to make bombs like the one that had killed the Marines.

Golsteyn said that they brought the suspected bombmaker back to their base and that the man unexpectedly crossed paths with an Afghan tribal leader with whom Golsteyn’s team was working. When the leader expressed fear for his life, Golsteyn grew concerned about the consequences of letting the suspected insurgent go, Army documents said. He is alleged to have then shot the Taliban fighter.

AD

AD

“CPT Golsteyn stated he had no qualms about what he did because he couldn’t have lived with himself if [the suspected bombmaker] killed another Soldier or Marine,” an Army investigator’s summary of Golsteyn’s polygraph test said.

Army investigators closed an investigation of potential murder and conspiracy charges in 2014, finding that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. But Golsteyn nonetheless was stripped of the Silver Star, and a panel of Army officers in June 2015 decided that he should be separated from the military and issued a letter of reprimand for demonstrating conduct unbecoming of an officer.

Golsteyn kept a low profile until October 2016, when he granted a Fox News interview and acknowledged that he had killed a Taliban bombmaker who had been held as a detainee. He said that letting him go would have meant he could later target Afghans who were helping U.S. troops.