Despite a lull in court-martial proceedings against Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward \u201cEddie\u201d Gallagher for allegedly stabbing to death an Islamic State prisoner, the case has expanded to target members of SEAL Team 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Search warrant documents and email messages from Naval Criminal Investigative Service<\/a> agents leaked to Navy Times reveal the seizure of cell phones and electronic communications beginning in early February, allegedly to prove that Gallagher urged fellow SEALs at the Naval Special Warfare Development Group \u2014 or DEVGRU \u2014 to obstruct justice or retaliate against junior sailors who ratted him out for war crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The documents and emails appear to support a theory put forward by Gallagher\u2019s defense attorneys that military prosecutors are going after what they call a \u201cMean Girls”<\/a> clique of special operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They suspect prosecutors are trying to prove collusion between Gallagher and other SEAL leaders at California\u2019s Naval Base Coronado and members of the color-coded DEVGRU squadrons i<\/a>n Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Investigators appeared to want to perform forensic examinations of the phones or otherwise track the communications to see if SEAL Team 7\u2032s Gallagher conversed with peers at DEVGRU about retaliating against witnesses in the NCIS probe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These sorts of search warrants aren\u2019t unusual. Prosecutors often will ask agents to get Command Authorization for Search and Seizure \u2014 or CASS \u2014 to obtain the evidence that\u2019s then analyzed using Cellebrite technology <\/a>or other software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other than requesting that Navy Times not reveal the names of the CASS targets, Navy Region Southwest officials declined comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\t