The government's corruption case against now-retired Navy Adm. Robert Burke may be dealt a heavy blow in the coming weeks as lawyers for both the officer and the company he's alleged to have taken bribes from have filed motions to dismiss any evidence gathered from a key witness.
The witness in question is a woman with whom Burke was having an affair and who, according to court filings, went to officials with the bribery allegations after their relationship ended. The filings argue that the woman has a documented history of lying to the courts and that prosecutors failed to offer any of that information in requests for two search warrants used to gather evidence against Burke and the executives of the company that eventually hired him.
Outside legal experts say that, while the loss of a key witness may not mean an outright end to the trial, the legal framework around bribery will still make it incredibly challenging for prosecutors to get a conviction. Moreover, the case is highlighting a deeper problem within top military leadership circles, where close relationships with companies looking to do business with the Pentagon lead to problematic, if not illegal, results.
The case against Burke, who was once commander of U. Naval Forces Europe and Africa and the Navy's second-highest ranking officer, as well as Charlie Kim and Meghan Messenger of the company Next Jump, began in late May , when the trio was arrested over allegations that Burke directed a lucrative Navy contract to the firm, which specializes in leadership training, in while serving as a four-star admiral.
Since then, while the retired admiral and the two executives appear to be at odds about some of the details of their relationship and offered different arguments as to their innocence through court filings, they have been in agreement over their belief that evidence provided to prosecutors by Burke's former lover needs to be excluded from the case. While officially unnamed in court documents, the woman has been described as a top civilian official working in the Office of the Under Secretary of the Navy.
