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Mr Gallagher has been unexpectedly released from base confinement
A US Navy Seal accused of stabbing a teenage Islamic State fighter to death has been unexpectedly released days ahead of his trial.
Navy Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher is also involved with indiscriminately shooting Iraqi civilians on his eighth combat tour.
A military judge freed the fight veteran after the prosecutors acknowledged the defense team's emails.
US President Donald Trump is reportedly mulling a pardon for Chief Gallagher.
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Mr Gallagher and his wife, Andrea Gallagher
Thursday's surprise ruling by Capt Aaron Rugh, drew gasps in the San Diego court, according to the Associated Press news agency.
Chief Gallagher's defense team is arguing the case should be dismissed or prosecutors removed as a result of what they call illegal spying.
The highly decorated sniper and doctor is scheduled to be tried for a crime.
He has pleaded not guilty to murdering an injured teenage militant in Iraq in 2017 and attempted murder for shooting civilians from a sniper's nest.
In court, lawyers for Chief Gallagher presented evidence that Navy Prosecutors and their investigators had embedded a tracking code in emails to the Navy Times.
Defense attorney Tim Parlatore described a "rogue, relentless and unlawful cyber-campaign" that he argued had violated attorney-client privilege and undermined Chief Gallagher's right to a fair trial, according to the Associated Press.
The lead prosecutor, Cmdr Christopher Czaplak, said the code only showed where the recipients opened the emails.
Andrea Gallagher spoke briefly with her husband on Thursday, saying, "We have been utterly terrorized by this entire farce of a case."
Friends in high places
By Tara McKelvey, BBC News
President Trump has taken an interest in Chief Gallagher's case, and he has found it guilty.
The President's remarks about Gallagher's case had an impact: Mr. Trump tweeted about the conditions of Chief Gallagher's confinement in March, and Chief Gallagher was transferred from a brig to a military hospital.
Being in the hospital – instead of a military jail – made it easier for him to receive and speak with his lawyers.
Chief Gallagher has a high profile, one of them works for the Trump Organization, and one of the most important possibilities (at least for Chief Gallagher) ) that even if the jury finds him guilty, to pardon could await.
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Chief Gallagher in short in January
Mrs Gallagher has called the trial "an atrocity committed against America's service members" and frequently posts updates on the Eddie Gallagher Free Facebook page.
Chief Gallagher was held in pre-trial confinement after prosecutors.
His case has drawn widespread attention, including from President Trump.
At the end of March, Mr Trump personally intervened in the case, demanding that Chief Gallagher be moved from a military prison to a less-restrictive facility.
White House Officials told the New York Times that the Trump administration had made an "expedited request" last week to the pardon of several accused members, including Chief Gallagher.
Earlier in May, Mr Trump granted a full pardon to 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, to train soldier who was convicted in the 2009 killing of an Iraqi man in American custody.
According to the charges, Chief Gallagher allegedly stabbed a teenage IS fighter who had been wounded in an airstrike in May 2017.
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Facebook / Eddie Gallagher
Chief Gallagher's box has attracted the support of US President Donald Trump
Prosecutors say the wounded prisoner is being treated by the platoon that Chief Gallagher ordered when he allegedly attacked without any warning using a homemade knife.
He then had others take a shot at the corpse and recited the Navy re-enlistment oath ceremony, prosecutors say.
A lawyer for Chief Gallagher said the fighter died of injuries in the airstrike, and that his client was being falsely accused by Seals who wanted to get rid of their demanding platoon leader.
Cmdr Czaplak said the chief has chosen "to act like the monster the terrorists accuse us of being".
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