One of President Donald Trump’s personal attorneys signed on Wednesday to join the defense team of a Navy SEAL charged with murder and shooting Iraqi civilians.

Marc Mukasey, who has represented Trump in disputes over his financial records and private foundation, called in to a motions hearing at Naval Base San Diego Wednesday and was officially sworn in as co-counsel for the defendant, Navy SEAL Edward R. Gallagher.

Gallagher is charged with killing a wounded ISIS fighter in Mosul, Iraq, in 2017. According to prosecutors, SEALs in Gallagher’s platoon say the chief special warfare operator stabbed a teenage fighter while providing medical care. SEALs also have told Navy investigators that Gallagher shot indiscriminately at civilians and that he shot an old man and a young girl from a sniper tower, prosecutors have said in court.

Gallagher has denied the charges.


Mukasey, who was on the phone for about 10 to 15 minutes during the hearing, joins Gallagher’s defense team as his other client — Trump — is reportedly considering a pardon for Gallagher ahead of his upcoming trial.

One expert told the Union-Tribune that the presence of the president’s personal attorney on the defense team does not necessarily amount to a conflict of interest, despite the president’s broad pardoning power and his position as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

“Merely because a lawyer has a client who has some sort of relationship with another client, it may or may not be disqualifying,” said William Woodruff, a former Army JAG trial attorney and professor emeritus at the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University in North Carolina.

“For those who believe that Gallagher should be tried and not pardoned before trial, this is the sort of thing that gives them fodder,” Woodruff said. “A pretrial pardon by the commander-in-chief would be highly unusual.”


A San Diego Naval official not authorized to comment on the matter told the Union-Tribune Saturday that the Justice Department’s pardons office had requested material on Gallagher on Friday. Trump also intervened earlier in the case, when he ordered Gallagher released from pretrial confinement in March.

Wednesday’s hearing mostly focused on the prosecution’s investigation into leaks to the news media. Lead defense attorney Timothy Parlatore alleged that the prosecution has been spying on the defense via email.

Parlatore said that in emails sent to defense attorneys earlier this month, Cmdr. Chris Czaplak, the lead prosecutor, included a logo that hid a type of software that enabled the government to track where those emails were forwarded. Mukasey was among the attorneys who received the emails with the software, Parlatore told the judge.

Czaplak also sent the software to a Navy Times reporter, an action that the Military Reporters & Editors Association called “profoundly disturbing” in a written statement.


Prosecutors said the software only tracks the IP addresses of emails; not the content. IP addresses can sometimes be used to identify the location of a computer.

Parlatore told the judge, Navy Capt. Aaron Rugh, that the software did more than just track IP addresses. He said his team suspects the software acted as a “beacon” that would relay more detailed information to whoever had sent it, such as the content of the emails.

Parlatore said the prosecution’s actions to ferret out leaks amounts to misconduct, and that he would file a motion to have the prosecutors recused from the case and the charges dropped.

“This entire investigation was aimed at stopping any media coverage that might be favorable to Chief Gallagher,” Parlatore said after the hearing. “This entire prosecution team should be removed from this case.”


Parlatore also said he plans to submit a motion to have Rugh recuse himself from the case, because he believes the judge authorized “spying.”

“I had hoped to avoid a motion to recuse the judge,” Parlatore said. “We believe the judge authorized the prosecution to spy on the defense attorneys. We need a lot more information.”

Rugh said during the hearing that the would “closely and carefully” consider Parlatore’s recusal request.

He also said the NCIS cybercrimes unit should assist the defense in identifying what information was captured by the software.


The matter is expected to be discussed again next Wednesday at another motions hearing.

Gallagher’s trial has been postponed until May 31 but, depending on the results of the next hearing, it could be postponed until later this summer.

More defense connections to Trump came to light this week. The Daily Beast reported Fox News personality Pete Hegseth has privately lobbied Trump on Gallagher’s behalf.

Parlatore has represented Hegseth in the past.


Parlatore denied that anyone on his team is involved in efforts to get Trump to pardon Gallagher.

“We have not asked the president to get involved,” he said. “Mark Mukasey has not talked to the president about this; that’s not what he’s doing here. If the president chooses to act, it would be on his own.”

