Malcolm Nance is a terror analyst for MSNBC and he is now tied up in a stolen valor scandal.
Nance is a "former career US Naval Intelligence officer specializing in counter-terrorism, intelligence, and violent extremism as an advisor for the U.S. government’s law enforcement, Homeland Security and Intelligence agencies."
An extensive report from the New York Times has called into question many of the American "warfighters" who traveled to Ukraine.
Below was a segment Nance did in April of 2022.
Nance: The more I saw of the war going on, the more I thought I’m done talking… So about a month ago I joined the international legion here in Ukraine… pic.twitter.com/zviTHUm2a0
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 18, 2022
The NYT recently highlighted some of Nance's antics:
Malcolm Nance, a former Navy cryptologist and MSNBC commentator, arrived in Ukraine last year and made a plan to bring order and discipline to the Legion. Instead, he became enmeshed in the chaos.
Today, Mr. Nance is involved in a messy, distracting power struggle. Often, that plays out on Twitter, where Mr. Nance taunted one former ally as “fat” and an associate of “a verified con artist.”
He accused a pro-Ukraine fund-raising group of fraud, providing no evidence. After arguing with two Legion administrators, Mr. Nance wrote a “counterintelligence” report trying to get them fired. Central to that report is an accusation that one Legion official, Emese Abigail Fayk, fraudulently tried to buy a house on an Australian reality TV show with money she didn’t have. He labeled her “a potential Russian spy,” offering no evidence. Ms. Fayk denied the accusations and remains with the Legion.
Mr. Nance said that as a member of the Legion with an intelligence background, when he developed concerns, he “felt an obligation to report this to Ukrainian counterintelligence.”
After he left Ukraine he saddled up with another "fundraiser" Ben Lackey who claimed he was also part of the Ukrainian International legion. Recently the Pentagon reported that Lackey lied about his military experience. Actually, the Ukrainian fundraiser has never been part of the military a day in his life and worked for a steakhouse as a waiter:
The dispute goes to the heart of who can be trusted to speak for and raise money for the Legion.
Mr. Nance has left Ukraine but continues fund-raising with a new group of allies. One of them, Ben Lackey, is a former Legion member. He told his fellow volunteers that he was once a Marine and wrote on LinkedIn that he had most recently been an assistant manager at LongHorn Steakhouse. In fact, the Pentagon said he had no military experience (and he worked as a server, the steakhouse said).
So an MSNBC analyst used the war to make him look good and teamed up with a guy that was a liar.