British Military Confirmed Gorka’s Service, But Questions About His Duties Linger

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Senior White House aide Sebastian Gorka has pointed to his years working on counterterrorism issues for the British army reserves to bolster his expertise in the counterterrorism field. Though the Ministry of Defence confirmed to TPM that he served, significant questions linger about what exactly his assignment entailed.

The issue of Gorka’s British army service has arisen anew because of an exhaustive investigation by Jezebel’s Anna Merlan, which found multiple wildly different characterizations of Gorka’s duties in Unit 22 of the Territorial Army, now known as the Army Reserve.

Gorka told a Hungarian newspaper in 2002 that he was in a “uniformed anti-terrorist unit” for three years, evaluating “the possible threats terrorists could cause.” Several press reports say he focused on intelligence-gathering in Northern Ireland, and another, in the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sunday Times, reports that he was collecting “evidence for the war crimes tribunal set up after the collapse of Yugoslavia,” as Jezebel reported.

The Ministry of Defence refused to even confirm or deny to Jezebel whether Gorka served in the reserve unit, let alone provide information about what his duties entailed.

But a British army spokesman did confirm to TPM – back in February – that Gorka served for three years, though also declined to offer further details. Gorka would have been in his early 20s at the time.

“Sebastian Gorka did serve in the British Army Reserve in 22 Company, 2 Military Intelligence Battalion, for three years, around 1990-1993,” Bayard Barron, a lieutenant colonel in the Defence Directorate of Communications wrote in a Feb 15 email to TPM.

Gorka and the White House both declined to respond to Jezebel’s multiple requests for clarification.

Though Gorka is billed as an expert on counterterrorism issues and is tasked with developing White House policy in this area, counterterrorism experts from across the ideological spectrum told TPM he was little known or respected in the field.

His experience amounts to several think tank positions on counterterrorism issues, several of which were co-founded by him and his wife, Katherine, as well as teaching positions at U.S. military institutions. His chair at the Marine Corps University was funded by major Republican Party donor and Heritage Foundation chairman Thomas Saunders III. Gorka parlayed these positions into roles as a counterterrorism expert on Fox News and national security editor for Breitbart News. He also wrote the 2016 bestseller “Defeating Jihad.”

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. If pressed Gorka would likely confess, all other skills aside, that he is not a rocket scientist.

  2. Have you ever noticed you never see Obama and Assad in the same room at the same time? Hmmmmm…?

  3. "Bartus sums up the Hungarian opinion of Gorka: “Then the unanimous opinion was that this man is a fortune hunter and a conman, who wriggles his way in everywhere, where he convinces everybody of his extraordinary expertise, when actually the only thing he is an expert on is extremist incitement. This picture of him among those who knew him in Budapest has not changed since.” Bartus is not surprised that Trump and Gorka found each other since “birds of a feather flock together.”

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

16 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for paulw Avatar for mondfledermaus Avatar for arrrrrj Avatar for steviedee111 Avatar for semiotix Avatar for dont Avatar for sanni Avatar for twowolves Avatar for moreyampersand Avatar for dnl Avatar for tena Avatar for clauscph Avatar for jonnygee Avatar for dannydorko Avatar for jsrtheta Avatar for honeybadger Avatar for bluefalcon

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: