On 28 May 2025, former Army First Lieutenant Mark Bashaw received a phone call from the White House informing him that President Donald J. Trump had signed a full and unconditional pardon for United States v. 1LT Mark Bashaw. Bashaw had been convicted for refusing to participate in the experimental and weaponized COVID-19 testing, masking, and injections.
Court Martial Audio - UNITED STATES vs 1LT MARK C. BASHAW
Mark C. Bashaw is a U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army veteran with over 17 years of active-duty service, including multiple overseas tours and leadership roles in preventive medicine and entomology. He served as a commissioned officer in the Army Medical Service Corps and was formerly the Headquarters and Headquarters Company Commander at the Army Public Health Center (APHC), Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.
During the COVID-19 “pandemic,” Bashaw raised legitimate and lawful objections to the Department of Defense’s enforcement of experimental Emergency Use Authorized (EUA) products—including masks, injections, and diagnostic tests—on service members. His protected communications, including multiple Article 138 UCMJ complaints, whistleblower declarations, and religious accommodation requests, highlighted the legal requirements under 21 U.S.C. § 360bbb-3 and 10 U.S.C. § 1107a, which guarantee the right to refusal of EUA products. Despite acting within the law, he was subjected to a sweeping campaign of retaliation by Army leadership.
These retaliatory actions included:
Unlawful revocation of his security clearance and access badge
Banned from all Army Public Health Center facilities for 413 days
Flagging of his personnel record to block his pending promotion to Captain (O-3)
Forced removal from duty, labeled as an “insider threat”
Denial of religious accommodation, never properly adjudicated
Court-Martialed
Involuntary separation based on what were later confirmed to be unlawful mandates
Threats of Leavenworth imprisonment
Escorted to weaponized Behavioral Health appointments
On April 29, 2022, Bashaw was convicted in a special court-martial for refusing COVID-19 EUA mandates. While the judge issued “no additional punishment” and recommended dismissal of the findings, senior command upheld the conviction. The lead prosecutor in the case was COL Yevgeny Eugene Vindman, then Staff Judge Advocate to MG Robert Edmonson. Vindman publicly boasted about the conviction on Twitter the same day, posting:
This public celebration of a whistleblower’s punishment underscores the deeply political and retaliatory nature of the prosecution. Bashaw's treatment became even more indefensible after the Secretary of Defense publicly admitted in 2024–2025 that many COVID-19 mandates issued to troops were legally invalid and unlawful, precisely echoing the arguments Bashaw had lawfully made in his protected communications.
Bashaw continues to advocate for the correction of his military record, full reinstatement, back pay, restoration of benefits, and legal accountability for the officers involved in unlawful retaliation and willful violations of military regulations, federal laws, and their sworn oths to the Constitution of the United States of America.
On May 28, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued a full presidential pardon of Mark C. Bashaw’s court-martial conviction, recognizing the truth of his claims and the unlawful nature of the actions taken against him.
