WAIT, THE ADMINISTRATION LIED?:

Talking to the press at the Pentagon after he announced his decision to relieve Crozier of his command, Modly accused the captain of sending the letter out "over non-secure, unclassified email." He said that the captain should not have sent a "blast-out email to anybody who he knows about the situation."

The former acting Navy secretary added the email was "copied to 20 or 30 other people."

Asked specifically if Crozier was being "relieved because he CC'd too many people," Modly replied, "To me, that demonstrated extremely poor judgment in the middle of a crisis."

But the email, to which the captain's four-page letter was attached, appears to have been sent to only 10 people in total, The Washington Post, which obtained a copy of the email, reported Thursday.

It was sent to Crozier's immediate boss, Rear Adm. Stuart Baker, US Pacific Fleet commander Adm. John Aquilino, and Vice Adm. DeWolfe Miller, who oversees all Pacific naval air forces. Crozier, according to The Post, then copied the message to just seven other people, all of whom were fellow US Navy captains.

Tweet   @brothersjudd