In late 2016, I wrote about pro bono work by Kasowitz Benson Torres partner Michael Bowe on behalf of Major Jason Brezler, who was relieved of command “due to loss of trust and confidence” and slated to be kicked out of the Marine Corps.

The reason? He warned his comrades in Afghanistan of a possible attack, but in his haste to do so, he sent a classified document from his personal email account.

2016, you might recall, was a year where using personal email to send classified government information loomed large (cough, Hillary)—but this case was over the top.

Brezler, when he was stationed in Afghanistan in 2009, helped expel a local police chief who was allegedly “kidnapping and keeping Afghan boys as sex slaves, trafficking in narcotics, and providing arms, munitions, and Afghan police uniforms to the Taliban,” according to a complaint filed by Bowe in the Eastern District of New York.

But a few years later, the same man somehow secured a position as the chief of the Afghan police unit stationed at a Marine base in Delhi, Afghanistan.

By this time, Brezler was back in the U.S., attending graduate school in Oklahoma. One of his comrades overseas recognized the police chief and asked Brezler to forward a dossier on him. Brezler immediately sent the document—he still had it on his computer—and warned that the man was an urgent danger to the base. 

The warning was ignored and soon after, a member of the man’s entourage got a hold of an unsecured rifle and killed three troops on base in August of 2012.

Suffice to say, the commanders who ignored Brezler’s warning didn’t look good in the face of congressional and journalistic inquiries about the shooting. 

Brezler almost immediately realized he’d made a mistake by sending the classified document via his personal email and reported the “spillage” to his commanding officer. An initial inquiry concluded “the probability of further compromise is remote and the threat to national security is minimal.”

Nonetheless, a few months later, Brezler received an adverse “fitness report,” and a Board of Inquiry recommended that he be discharged from the Marines.

To Bowe, the actions were a case of retaliation. His client was punished for speaking to Rep. Peter King, D-New York, he alleged, and the military violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to provide Brezler with all documents relevant to his retaliation claims.

In December of 2016, U.S. District Judge Joseph Bianco reversed and remanded the case—though we all know that doesn’t guarantee a happy ending.

This time, it did. A panel of Marine Corps officers held that while Brezler failed to “properly discharge the duties expected of an officer of his grade and experience,” the transgression was not enough to warrant discharge. 

“For seven years, Jason has fought for one reason: He loves the Marine Corps and wants to continue to contribute,” Bowe said. “This was the right result from a panel of senior Marines Corps officers, all of whom came up to him after and expressed their support.”