Navy Prosecutors Spied on SEAL's attorney

[Tidewater]

I did not want to put this in the Trump thread because it would get buried there and because I do not think Trump is involved in these particulars.
Prosecutors in Navy war crimes case accused of spying on defense attorneys and Navy Times reporter

There were leaks to the media in this case. The Navy prosecutor was angry and wanted to find out who was leaking, so he sent out emails and attached an app/virus that would tell him who opened the email and on what device and sent the email out, including to the Navy Times.

The judge in the case (a Navy captain) was not amused and dismissed the Navy prosecutor from the case. This strikes me as a modern-day electronic Barney Fife.

Military prosecutors in the case ... installed tracking software in emails sent to defense lawyers and a reporter in an apparent attempt to discover who was leaking information to the media.

That is what I would call dirty pool. Leaking documents is a violation of the UCMJ, but it is not this prosecutor's job to find out who did that. Turn it over to NCIS and get back to your case.

Ret. Lt. Col. Gary Solis, who teaches law at Georgetown and as a Marine Corps lawyer prosecuted some 400 cases and was a judge on more than 300 others, said ... "Not only is it ethically questionable, it may be legally questionable. ... When it's apparently so easily discoverable when done in an ineffectively haphazard manner ... it's questionable on an intellectual level."

Just a weird case all around.

 

[Bazza]

For nearly two years, the Navy peddled lies to news outlets that Eddie had shot a little girl and stabbed to death a dying ISIS fighter.
But during the trial, it turns out those accusing him weren’t even in Eddie’s sniper hide. Those that were with him daily — Ed’s spotter and signals intelligence operator — testified every single one of his shots was legit and that it likely was actually Islamic State, not Ed, that shot the girl.

To any service member reading this: If it can happen to us, it can happen to you.

The message your brass and bureaucracy is sending you is clear. You are disposable. When it comes to their careers or their political motives, they’ll send you to war and then railroad you, drag you through the mud, and sing songs of sanctimony while you and your family hang.

Our family’s message to you is this.

That flag on your uniform, and the Constitution you swear to protect, also protects you. No one, not even members of your own military, can deny you your rights, especially the right to due process and a jury of your peers.

It is the only thing that saved my brother from a lifetime of unjust imprisonment.

It also guarantees civilian control of the military. So while the brass rails about moral hazards and pontificates about good order, the Gallagher family will continue to cast our ballots for those who actually support our warfighters and not some other agenda.

President Trump was right to intervene on Eddie’s case, and that should terrify every person wearing a uniform.

To see the full list, we filed a 16-page Inspector General complaint here.

As you might be aware, SOC Gallagher was the defendant in a recent, highly-publicized court-martial related to his deployment to Mosul, Iraq as the Platoon Chief of Alpha Platoon, SEAL Team 7 (ST-7) from 6 February 2017 – 1 September 2017. Although he was charged with an array of offenses, including Murder and Attempted Murder, he was acquitted of those fabricated charges after a jury trial. The purpose of this complaint is not to re-litigate the case itself, but rather to seek accountability for the severe misconduct committed by the investigators, prosecutors, and the command before, during, and after the trial. Specifically, SOC Gallaghercomplains of the following:
1. Misconduct by NCIS personnel in the investigation and presentation of charges;
2. Misconduct by RLSO SW personnel in the suppression of evidence;
3.Misconduct by NCIS, RLSO SW, COS RLSO, and OJAG in the illegal warrantless
tracking of defense counsel’s emails;
4.Intelligence oversight of NCIS’s practice of using counter-intelligence assets for lawenforcement purposes in violation of EO 12333;
5.Misconduct by WARCOM and subordinate command personnel in attempting toimproperly influence the proceedings and taint the jury pool;
6. Misconduct by WARCOM command personnel for acts of reprisal against SOCGallagher after POTUS ordered his release from pretrial confinement; and,
7.Misconduct by WARCOM and subordinate command personnel in retaliating against SOC Gallagher after the conclusion of the trial.

From Op-Ed by his brother, Sean:

Op-ed: Navy corruption and the Gallagher case

 

[Tidewater]

I honestly do not know enough about the case to judge SOC Gallagher's conduct (although, if true, taking a selfies with a dead terrorist is pretty weird and re-enlisting in the presence of a dead terrorist is also pretty weird), and thus to evaluate the propriety of Trump in pardoning him.

I do know prosecutorial misconduct when I see it and the judge who dismissed prosecutor decided that the prosecutor's conduct was questionable enough that the interests of justice were better served if that prosecutor was not involved in the case. Sometimes prosecutors are over-zealous. This appears to be one of those cases.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I honestly do not know enough about the case to judge SOC Gallagher's conduct (although, if true, taking a selfies with a dead terrorist is pretty weird and re-enlisting in the presence of a dead terrorist is also pretty weird), and thus to evaluate the propriety of Trump in pardoning him.

I do know prosecutorial misconduct when I see it and the judge who dismissed prosecutor decided that the prosecutor's conduct was questionable enough that the interests of justice were better served if that prosecutor was not involved in the case. Sometimes prosecutors are over-zealous. This appears to be one of those cases.

One thing I've noticed over the years is that, because of the military overlay, I think, sometimes JAG lawyers are not as sensitive to some ethical matters as attorneys practicing outside the military. Conflict of interest is one area. I've told more than one "You can't advise both those people." What's involved here is basically an esoteric form of conflict of interest...

 

[Tidewater]

True. The source of this information, as one might imagine, is the defense lawyer himself. He actually confronted the prosecutor over the email with the tracking app embedded. We are only getting one side of this story, but the judge was taken aback enough that he dismissed that particular prosecutor.

 

[92tide]

i guess this fits here.

https://thehill.com/homenews/admini...s-who-turned-in-gallagher-he-is-freaking-evil

A group of Navy SEALS who accused their platoon leader of war crimes have spoken out in never-before-seen footage obtained by The New York Times.

According to a trove of leaked Navy materials, members of SEAL Team 7 described Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher in grim terms, calling him “freaking evil,” “toxic” and a “psychopath.”

“You could tell he was perfectly OK with killing anybody that was moving,” Special Operator 1st Class Corey Scott, a medic in the platoon, told investigators during Gallagher’s trial on war crimes, including murder, according to the report.


In the leaked video interviews, SEAL Team 7 members described seeing Gallagher targeting civilians, including a 12-year-old child, and fatally stabbing a wounded captive with a hunting knife.

 

[Tidewater]

i guess this fits here.

https://thehill.com/homenews/admini...s-who-turned-in-gallagher-he-is-freaking-evil

I guess two things can be true at once. Gallagher can be a toxic leader (I’ve seen plenty) and his prosecutor could have been improperly spying on his attorney.
Gallagher was convicted of taking a selfie with a dead terrorist. Creepy to be sure, maybe an indicator of some mental issues, but hardly Eichmann territory.

 

[92tide]

well, i hope his new stint as campaign prop serves him well.

 

[Tidewater]

well, i hope his new stint as campaign prop serves him well.

For as long as it lasts.
I knew a guy who said, (and this is a direct quote), "Leadership is simply a matter of how much pain you are willing to inflict." Later, in Afghanistan, he was wandering into a (figurative, not literal) minefield, none of those who benefited from his "leadership" warned him. They all said to each other (again, figuratively) "Hey, bud, watch what the Old Man is doing," and put their fingers in their ears for the expected boom, which was not long in coming. That "leader" was relieved and sent home.

 

[Crimson1967]

Anyone who was OK with him posing with the dead terrorist (and I think it is wrong) has no right to get upset the next time an enemy uses our dead as props.

 

[Go Bama]

I just got an alert about this article from the NYT. Chilling to say the least.

I don't have Hulu but:

[Watch a special Times documentary featuring combat video and confidential interviews with the Navy SEALs who accused their chief of war crimes, streaming on Hulu.]

 

[Tidewater]

Anyone who was OK with him posing with the dead terrorist (and I think it is wrong) has no right to get upset the next time an enemy uses our dead as props.

Stuff like this (selfies with dead enemies) mostly likely starts with some soldier doing it, then the photos get posted to facebook. The chain of command tells the guys, "Okay, knock it off. If we catch you taking selfies with dead enemies, we are going to crush your gonads (UCMJ or court martial)."
Enter Chief Gallagher, taking a selfie with a dead enemy. At that point it comes to the public's attention, but it has been bubbling below the public's attention level for a long time.
If I was the Team commander, I doubt I would take that to a court martial. I'd be inclined to dispose of this with a letter of reprimand. Maybe Chief Gallagher was not the first case of a selfie with a dead terrorist. Maybe he was the 20th case and the chain of command decided to make an example of somebody and he was dumb enough to be that somebody.

 

[92tide]

this was about a lot more than this d-bag taking a selfie with a corpse. that was all he was convicted of

 

[Tidewater]

this was about a lot more than this d-bag taking a selfie with a corpse. that was all he was convicted of

I saw this in the article linked:
"In the leaked video interviews, SEAL Team 7 members described seeing Gallagher targeting civilians, including a 12-year-old child, and fatally stabbing a wounded captive with a hunting knife."
Makes you wonder why they did not go after him for these crimes.
From the Navy Times story I linked, it does not seem like there was a lack of zeal on the part of the prosecutors. They wanted to nail him bad, so why not bring charges for targeting civilians and stabbing a sedated prisoner?

 

[92tide]

i'm not sure what you are getting at. he was charged with several serious crimes and was acquitted.

 

[Tidewater]

i'm not sure what you are getting at. he was charged with several serious crimes and was acquitted.

He was charged with one count of murder: the killing of the unconscious prisoner (that another SEAL in Gallagher's trial admitted that he had killed by blocking his breathing tube), and convicted of taking a photo with a dead terrorist.
Gallagher was not charged with killing civilians, including a 12 year-old girl.
That would seem to be pretty serious, unless they found the allegation to be not credible or lacking corroborating evidence. It wasn't for lack of desire to nail him, as the unethical spying on Gallagher's defense attorney indicates. Obviously, the prosecutors wanted to nail Gallagher pretty bad, but they did not charge him with killing civilians.

 

[92tide]

oh, i see what you meant now