Christian Reismeier
Director, Office of Military Commissions
Charles L. Reismeier earned an undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University. He received a Juris Doctor from the George Washington University School of Law, and a LL.M. in Trial Advocacy from Temple University, Beasley School of Law.
He began his Navy career in Aviation Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, Florida, as an intelligence officer candidate. He served with an A-6 squadron in Virginia Beach, deploying on the USS Forrestal, with a second assignment at the Pentagon. He was selected for the law education program by the Navy and attended law school on fully funded Navy orders.
As a leader in the Judge Advocate Generals (JAG) Corps, Reismeier served four years as a trial judge in Norfolk and San Diego, two years representing the government on appeals of Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial, four years as the Chief Defense Counsel in Norfolk, Virginia, and four years as a prosecutor in Mayport, Florida. He served as the director of the Navy’s Criminal Law Division, with his work including policy advice to the Judge Advocate General of the Navy, the General Counsel of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations, and the Secretary of the Navy.
He served three years at the Chief Judge, Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals. After 32 years of service, Reismeier retired at the rank of Rear Admiral, and he remains “OF Counsel” with JAG Defense.
In May 2019, Reismeier was named to serve as the Director of the Office of the Convening Authority for the Military Commissions.
In the News…
The Department of Defense is constructing a new courtroom for war crimes trials at Guantanamo Bay, which will not allow the public inside the chamber.
The courtroom, the second at the military base, will also allow two military judges to preside over separate proceedings simultaneously. In larger cases, such as the trials of the men accused of planning the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the hearings would take place in the currently-existing chamber that is accessible by the public via a gallery.
The new chamber, which costs about $4 million, would be used for smaller cases. A gallery was not included in the new chamber, which the Pentagon said was due to the additional cost involved, meaning that people need a secret clearance in order to enter.
A spokesman for the Office of Military Commissions said that because of the lack of physical gallery, the court staff are working on a “virtual gallery with multiple camera angles simultaneously displayed.”
