In their first public statements on the case, the company’s lawyers and the indicted co-CEOs criticized the Justice Department’s handling of the investigation, suggesting prosecutors were fixated on achieving their trophy goal.
“The Next Jump co-CEOs have built an impeccable reputation over the past three decades of developing some of the most respected leadership programs used by the U.S. government, but now they appear to have been unfairly caught in the crossfire of a bureaucratic and politically motivated government,” Messenger attorney Rocco F. D’Agostino said in a written statement.
Next Jump attorney Reed Brodsky, co-chair of the litigation practice at the Gibson Dunn & Crutcher law firm and a former Manhattan federal prosecutor, said he was “very disappointed” with the way the government had proceeded in the months leading up to the indictment.
“We have attempted several times since that one announcement to present evidence and witnesses to the government, but to our surprise, the government has never listened to us, met with Next Jump’s attorneys, or given Next Jump any additional evidence we told them we had,” Brodsky said. “I didn’t even ask questions about it,” he said.
William A. Burke, Attorney Kim; Co-managing partner of Quinn Emanuel, one of Washington’s top white-collar law firms, also joined the case. Burke, a former George W. Bush White House counsel, has worked with prominent Republicans in the Justice Department’s Russia investigation, including former Trump White House lawyer Donald McGahn and political strategist Stephen K. Bannon. Represented our client list. He also represented Special Counsel Robert K. Hur, who investigated President Biden’s possession of classified documents after he left the vice presidency. And former Virginia First Lady Maureen McDonnell had her federal corruption conviction against her then-husband, Gov. Bob McDonnell, overturned on appeal.
“Charlie Kim would never risk everything he has built and his standing in the global business community for any reason,” Burke said in a statement. “To be clear, Mr. Kim strongly denies involvement in any conspiracy or bribery charges and has no intention of backing down. We are confident that he will be given a fair trial by the court and jury and will ultimately be acquitted.”
Spokespeople for the DCUS Office of the Attorney General and the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Division declined to comment, saying they “cannot comment on pending prosecutions.”
Legal experts say the combative defense of Kim and Messenger is surprising because prosecutors almost always “flip” low-profile co-defendants in conspiracy cases to leverage cooperation against top targets like Burke. The defense’s arguments also raise the stakes for the Department of Defense and Justice, which are expected to have tight cases, given Burke’s high-profile position and recent setbacks in public corruption cases, legal experts say.
“Hopefully the Justice Department will do its job smoothly and bring charges that can be scrutinized, because cases like this are very difficult to prove.” said Scott Amy, general counsel for the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight. “It is very important that the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense protect the contracting system and ensure that people in top positions are not thinking about lining their own pockets or the pockets of their future employers.”
The Justice Department is still reeling from the worst corruption scandal in Navy history, involving disgraced defense contractor Leonard “Pat Leonard” Francis, which was tainted after defense attorneys alleged prosecutors relied on faulty evidence and withheld information that would have benefited the defense. U.S. prosecutors said in May they would dismiss felony charges against five defendants who were convicted, and that up to 20 cases could be affected by ongoing reviews of 34 indictments involving 29 guilty pleas.
Meanwhile, the Navy has faced criticism that its top brass have avoided accountability while junior officers have been arrested and charged. This is because internal discipline of top executives is almost always handled internally. Burke said he was introduced to Next Jump in 2016, when the Navy was looking to revamp its leadership training program following the Fat Leonard scandal. He served as the Navy’s human resources chief the following year, serving as the company’s leader at a time when the Navy faced another crisis, a breakdown in leadership and readiness exposed by two fatal crashes involving the USS Fitzgerald and USS John McCain in June and August 2017. He said he contacted me. 17 sailors died in this accident.
The Burke case is “critical to the Justice Department’s recovery from the complete disaster of the Fat Leonard investigation,” said Michael R. Sherwin, a former federal prosecutor who served as acting U.S. attorney for D.C. in 2020 and 2021. Sherwin recently represented a defendant in another federal Navy bribery case in which prosecutors dismissed a $50 million fraud.
Virtually all federal corruption cases are “built on top of collaborators” like Burke to achieve top goals, Sherwin added. The fact that Kim and Messenger are fighting over the allegations “tells me that the government ran to them and they refused.” Or the prosecution believes the evidence against them – emails, text messages, recordings – is so strong they don’t need it.”
According to charging documents, Burke supported the Next Jump workforce training pilot program for small Navy components from August 2018 to July 2019 before the Navy terminated its contract with the company in November 2019. That same month, Burke’s aides instructed the company to no longer contact him because of “upcoming contract actions” and his recent promotion to deputy chief of naval operations. Burke served as the Navy’s second-in-command officer for about a year from June 2019 to June 2020, after his predecessor unexpectedly retired before taking over as the Navy’s top officer in August 2019.
Despite these warnings, according to the 16-page indictment, Kim, Messenger and Burke had a meeting in July 2021 in which he used his position as one of nine four-star Navy admirals at the time to offer future positions at Next Jump. In return, they allegedly agreed to award the sole supplier contract and influence other executives to award larger training contracts worth more than $100 million.
Senior government officials are generally required to notify the ethics office when entering into job negotiations and recuse themselves from matters involving potential future employers. But prosecutors charged that Burke misled and concealed his conflicts of interest from the Navy.
Burke’s attorney, Tim Parlatore, said his client never accepted the job at their first meeting and left the company a few months after joining in October 2022. Parlatore questioned the logic of the government’s argument that Next Jump offered her a $500,000-a-year job in exchange for $355,000 in compensation.
Kim and Messenger’s lawyers inside the company agree. In documents posted to the company’s social media accounts and internal communications, employees say Burke misled Next Jump executives about what he and the Navy were doing with the company and that his actions were acceptable.
Burke’s attorney, Parlatore, rejected this characterization, saying Burke “has never misled anyone.” When Burke had serious hiring talks with Next Jump, he received approval from the Navy, Parlatore said. “Admiral Burke did nothing wrong here. He was on board every step of the way. “There was no bribery involved and he expects to win the trial,” he said.
