Adm. Robert P. Burke, who is retired, faces federal bribery charges accusing him of awarding a sole-source contract to a company in 2021 in exchange for accepting a $500,000-a-year job and stock options. are fighting the charges, challenging federal prosecutors’ decision to bring what one of their lawyers called a “politically motivated” military corruption case.
Next Jump attorney Reed Brodsky, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor who co-chairs the litigation practice at the Gibson Dunn & Crutcher law firm, said it was “very disappointed” in how the government proceeded in the months preceding the indictment. “The Department of Justice hopefully has put its ducks in a row and has a prosecution that would withstand scrutiny, because these cases are very difficult to prove,” said Scott Amey, general counsel of the Project on Government Oversight watchdog group.
Virtually all federal corruption cases “are built on cooperators” to get to a top target, such as Burke, Sherwin added. The fact that Kim and Messenger are fighting charges “tells me either the government made a run at them, and they refused; or prosecutors think the evidence against them is so strong — such as emails, text messages or recordings — that they don’t need them.