One of the lawyers working on behalf of a Navy SEAL charged last year with war crimes reportedly has worked on behalf of the Trump Organization.
CNN reported Thursday that Marc Mukasey, an attorney with the Trump administration who was most recently involved in efforts to block House Democrats from accessing the president’s tax returns, is “one of the attorneys on Chief [Edward] Gallagher’s team,” according to a source familiar with Gallagher’s defense.
{mosads}Mukasey has been working for Gallagher for “two to three months,” according to that source.
Gallagher’s wife confirmed Mukasey’s role Thursday in a statement to CNN, telling reporters that Mukasey was playing a “supporting role, he’s not our lead lawyer, he’s not our main lawyer.”
News of Gallagher’s proximity to the Trump Organization when it comes to legal counsel follows a report earlier this week in which two U.S. officials claimed that President Trump was indicating that he would pardon Gallagher and other service members accused of wartime abuses.
Gallagher’s lead defense attorney maintained to CNN that the team was not actively reaching out to the White House in hopes of a pardon and that any such decision would be made of Trump’s own volition.
“We have not asked the president to get involved … We haven’t had any communications,” Tim Parlatore said, according to CNN. “If the president chooses to act it will be on his own.”
“The president has the power to pardon anybody either before or after a conviction,” Parlatore reportedly added.