Matt Gaetz Hired a Real-Life War Criminal to Work In His Congressional Office

Derrick Miller is a convicted war criminal who served eight years in a military prison for shooting and killing an unarmed Afghan civilian. He also works in the congressional office of Rep. Matt Gaetz as a legislative aide on military affairs,  according to reporting from the Intercept.

While stationed in Afghanistan in 2010, Miller, an ex-U.S. Army National Guard sergeant, shot and killed 27-year-old Atta Mohammed. The following year was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. 

Gaetz hired Miller as a legislative assistant in September 2022, according to Legistorm, which operates a database of congressional employees. A spokesperson for Gaetz said in a statement to VICE News Thursday that Miller was “wrongfully convicted and served our country with honor,” and that Gaetz and his staffers “proudly stand” with Miller. 

“Over the course of nearly a decade, members of Congress, multiple advocacy groups, and over 16,000 individuals on a petition have all signaled their support for clearing his name and recognizing him as innocent of charges imposed by a weaponized military injustice system under President Obama,” Joel Valdez, Gaetz’s communications director, said in the statement. “Mr. Miller advises our office on many matters, including ways to make the military justice system consistent with our constitutional principles and values.”

Though his attorneys argued that Miller had acted in self-defense when Mohammed walked through a defensive perimeter—Miller told the Army Times in 2019 that Mohammed tried to grab his pistol—a fellow National Guardsman and witness testified that he heard Miller threatening to kill the man if he did not tell him the truth, according to an AP report at the time of his conviction. 

The prosecuting attorney reportedly argued during the trial that Miller said, immediately after shooting Atta: “I shot him. He was a liar.” 

After spending eight years in prison, Miller was released from USP Leavenworth in Kansas in May 2019, after an advocacy campaign on his behalf which included a letter from Texas Rep. Brian Babin to then-President Donald Trump. Almost immediately following his release, he was hired by far-right Rep. Louie Gohmert, where he spent three years as a military adviser, according to the Intercept. 

Miller also simultaneously served as the executive director of the Congressional Justice for Warriors Caucus, which aims to “support imprisoned combat warriors who fought for our freedom and have been unfairly treated by the military justice system,” according to the group’s Twitter bio. 

“I want to fight to help those guys who were either wrongfully accused or over-sentenced get a second chance,” Miller told the Army Times following his release from Leavenworth in 2019. 

Gaetz has a history of defending people accused of violent crimes. In 2019, he reportedly authored a letter with former ‘vaping congressman’ Rep. Duncan Hunter in which he petitioned Trump to intervene in the case of former Navy SEAL platoon chief Eddie Gallagher, who was accused of war crimes in Iraq including stabbing an unarmed teenager to death. Gallagher, who was described by one former subordinate as “freaking evil,” was acquitted of most charges and then pardoned by Trump entirely in 2019. 

After Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted in the killing of two men during the civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2020, Gaetz invited the teen to intern for him. “You know what, Kyle Rittenhouse would probably make a good congressional intern,” Gaetz told Newsmax at the time. “We may reach out to him and see if he’d be interested in helping the country in additional ways.” 

It does not appear that Rittenhouse ever took him up on the offer.