The lead defense attorney representing Special Operations Chief Eddie Gallagher, a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes, is increasingly hopeful the judge overseeing the case will dismiss the charges against his client.
“To me, there’s no guarantees, but I think it’s certainly more likely than not,” Tim Parlatore told the Washington Examiner. “If I didn’t feel confident, I wouldn’t make the motion.”
Parlatore said he felt the trajectory of the case had increasingly turned favor of Gallagher, 39, a 20-year veteran with eight combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Navy Capt. Aaron Rugh, the judge overseeing the case, dismissed lead Navy prosecutor Cmdr. Chris Czaplak on Monday.
Last week, he ordered Gallagher’s release from pretrial custody. Both decisions came in response to the revelation that prosecutors were embedding tracking software in their email correspondence with the defense team, a potential ethics violation. Additionally, President Trump is considering a pardon.
“Well, there’s nothing normal about the case of U.S. v. Gallagher, in any respects,” Parlatore told the Washington Examiner. “To have a prosecutor removed from the case this close to trial is virtually unheard of.”
Navy spokesman Brian O’Rourke told the Washington Examiner Rugh could decide on the motion to dismiss at any time before the trial, which has been rescheduled to begin on June 17, instead of the original date of June 10. Parlatore said he expects a decision as early as Friday.
Gallagher, 39, is accused of murdering an injured ISIS fighter in Iraq in 2017, as well as indiscriminately shooting at civilians. Navy prosecutors allege Gallagher killed the fighter after Iraqi forces brought him to their base outside Mosul.
The growing publicity surrounding the case has split the Navy SEAL community between those who consider Gallagher a hero unfairly accused by an overzealous prosecution and others who see him as a disgrace to the SEAL tradition. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq, has been one of Gallagher’s staunchest defenders.
“Even if everything the prosecutors say is true in this case, Eddie Gallagher should still be given a break,” Hunter, R-Calif., told the hosts of the “Zero Blog Thirty” podcast last month.
Hunter was one of a select group of a congressmen allowed to view a video purporting to show the killing of the ISIS fighter. He and others have denied it implicates the SEAL, and instead proves he was in fact administering aid. All other case evidence has been under a strict gag order since proceedings against Gallagher began.
