Adm. Robert Burke, while serving as commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, speaks aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman during a visit to Italy in May 2022. Burke, now retired, is facing federal charges of bribery and conspiracy. He is seeking to be tried separately from two co-defendants. (Alexia Morelos/U.S. Navy)

A retired four-star Navy admiral contends that he should be tried separately on federal charges including bribery and conspiracy because his co-defendants’ strategy relies on proving his guilt.

Robert Burke also says the case against him has little evidence of criminality and is based on the government’s mistaken reliance on a “jilted ex-girlfriend, who is also a known and proven perjurer,” according to a court filing Monday.

Those assertions and others are part of Burke’s response to a separation request made last month by his two co-defendants.

Yongchul “Charlie” Kim and Meghan Messenger say they can’t get a fair trial alongside Burke because evidence used against him likely would sway a jury to convict them by association, court records reveal.

Burke was the 40th vice chief of naval operations from June 2019 to June 2020. He served as commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa in Naples, Italy, from 2020 until his retirement in 2022.

Meghan Messenger and Yongchul “Charlie” Kim, co-CEOs of Next Jump, a company that offered training programs to the Navy, are seen in a screenshot from a video on the company's X social media page. The pair say say they can’t get a fair trial alongside retired Adm. Robert Burke because evidence used against him likely would sway a jury to convict them by association, court records reveal. (Next Jump/X)

Kim and Messenger are co-CEOs of Next Jump, a company that offered training programs to the Navy. Next Jump has offices in New York, Boston and London, according to the company’s website.

All three are charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery. Prosecutors say Burke was promised employment and other perks with Next Jump in return for directing lucrative Navy contracts to the company.

Burke faces additional charges of performing acts affecting a personal financial interest and concealing material facts from the United States, according to court records.

At issue is a July 2021 lunch during which prosecutors allege that Burke sought a $500,000-a-year job and a grant of 100,000 stock options in Next Jump, which they say Kim and Messenger offered. In return, Burke directed a $355,135 contract to the company for training programs in Rota, Spain and Naples, prosecutors said in their May indictment.

Kim and Messenger hoped that the deal would lead with Burke’s help to even more lucrative contracts potentially worth millions of dollars, according to prosecutors.

Burke went to work for Next Jump for a few months after his retirement before resigning in January 2023, court records show.

In agreeing with Kim’s and Messenger’s request for separate trials, Burke’s attorneys say the pair’s planned defenses are fundamentally conflicting and irreconcilable with that of their client.

That in turn creates “a substantial danger that the jury will unjustifiably infer that this conflict alone demonstrates that all defendants are guilty,” they argue.

For example, Burke says official discussions about his future employment with the company didn’t happen until May 2022, well after the contract for training in Naples and Rota was completed. The Navy didn’t pursue additional training.

Burke also maintains that neither he nor Kim nor Messenger did anything improper. That assertion is backed by another witness, according to the filing.

But in their July 19 motion for a separate trial, Kim and Messenger agreed with the government’s claim that the job offer was made during a July 23, 2021, lunch meeting, attended not only by Burke but also by a senior civilian Navy official accompanying him.

Kim and Messenger argue that Burke knowingly misled them into believing that discussions about future employment were allowed, even while Burke supervised active contract negotiations with their company.

The presence of that Navy official gave credibility to that understanding, according to their court filing.

Kim and Messenger also say they did not know about Burke’s romantic relationship with the senior Navy civilian. That official, identified in a May indictment as Person 3, is a key witness in the government’s case, according to court records.

In their filing, Burke’s attorneys say the woman committed perjury related to her 2009 divorce. They argue that she was angry that Burke had reconciled with his wife and ultimately made an “initial false complaint with the DOD Inspector General to initiate this investigation and prosecution,” court records show.

“By embellishing certain elements of the (July 23, 2021) conversation, Person 3 was able to recast an entirely legal conversation into a criminal transaction,” Burke’s attorneys said. “With her prior perjury finding undisclosed to investigators Person 3 misled the IG and the FBI as to her credibility in all matters, instead reinforcing her senior position within the DOD as a false mantle of credibility.”

Burke’s filing also attacks the credibility of Kim and Messenger, saying the company was based on a methodology of “lie, hide and fake until you no longer have to.”

If convicted, Burke faces up to 30 years in prison, and Kim and Messenger each face a maximum of 20 years in prison.