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The military prosecutor of a decorated naval member, the SEAL, accused of murdering a wounded young prisoner in the Islamic State of Iraq, was dismissed from the case by a judge military on Monday for closely monitoring e-mails from the defense team.
Captain Aaron Rugh ordered Cmdr. Christopher Czaplak was removed from the file after Special Operations Chief Edward "Eddie" Gallagher's lawyers accused prosecutors of tracking software to e-mails sent to them and a Navy Times reporter. to find the source of the leaks on the case. In his decision, Rugh said that it was not in his power to determine the prosecutor's mistakes, but that there was the possibility of a conflict of interests requiring the removal of Czaplak.
The consequences of Rugh 's decision on Gallagher' s trial, due to open on June 10, were not yet clear. The defense stated that even if a new prosecutor were appointed, Gallagher could not get a fair trial.
Navy special operations chief Edward Gallagher leaving a military court alongside his wife Andrea in San Diego last Thursday.
(AP)
It is extremely unusual for a military judge to withdraw the charge or to close a case just days before the start of the trial. Rugh ordered the release of Gallaher last week after the discovery of e-mail.
NAVY SEAL, EDDIE GALLAGHER, OUT OF THE GUARD BEFORE THE MURDER TRIAL
At a hearing on Friday, the prosecutor, Lt. Scott McDonald, said that the follow-up effort was to collect data such as IP addresses, which are not considered confidential, and were not intended to monitor the content of emails.
Cmdr. Christopher Czaplak
(US Navy)
"We are talking about raw data," said McDonald, who claimed that "even if there was an intrusion" in violation of solicitor-client privilege, the filing of the record was not achieved .
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But Rugh reprimanded Navy investigators who refused to testify on Friday about the perpetrators of the follow-up plan, saying "the lack of frankness or cooperation in this process could be huge as a sign of guilt". The defense discovered the tracking code concealed in the suspicious logo of an American flag with a bald eagle perched on the scales of justice under Czaplak's signature.
Rugh said Friday that he had been misled about the follow-up effort. He added that the investigators had told him privately that they planned to incorporate code into what he thought was a court document to help them find the source of the leaks, but the judge said stated that he had no authority to authorize such tactics and that he had not told them planned to target e-mails sent to defense lawyers or a journalist.
Gallagher is accused of stabbing to death a 15-year-old Islamic State fighter in Iraq in 2017, having shot two civilians the same year and having opened fire on the crowd, charges for which he pleaded not guilty.
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Lt. Jacob Portier, his platoon supervisor, complained of conduct unbecoming an officer who presided over Gallagher's re-enlistment ceremony next to the activist's corpse.
The case drew the attention of President Trump, who allegedly planned to pardon Gallagher with other US troops accused or convicted of war crimes.
Vandana Rambaran of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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