Retired Four-Star Admiral Burke Convicted on Bribery Charges (1)

Retired four-star Navy Admiral Robert Burke was convicted Monday of bribery, bribery conspiracy, acts affecting a personal financial interest, and concealment of material facts.

Burke—who was the Commander for US Naval Forces Europe and US Naval Forces Africa from July 2020 until his retirement in August 2022—was found guilty of steering Navy business to workforce training platform Next Jump in exchange for a post-retirement role with the company.

The gig paid a $500,000 salary and came with an equity interest in the company.

“It’s not what I was hoping for or what I was expecting,” Timothy Parlatore, a lawyer for Burke, told Bloomberg Law.

Burke intends to appeal and maintains his innocence, he said.

The government fought hard to prevent the jury from hearing the full story, Parlatore said. In most cases, the prosecution puts on a mountain of evidence, and the defense tries to suppress it. This case was the opposite, Parlatore said.

Among other things, prosecutors presented only small, nonsequential pieces of a two-hour interview with Burke to make it sound like he’d confessed when he hadn’t, he said.

The government’s witnesses included law enforcement and other current and former Navy personnel, including retired Vice Admiral John Hannick, the 44th Judge Advocate General for the Navy.

Burke declined to take the stand.

The jury began deliberating Wednesday after six days of trial in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

Burke’s lawyers had argued that the government’s case relied almost entirely on the eyewitness testimony of a “jilted ex-girlfriend” with credibility problems. Although the prosecution’s pretrial filings suggested she would testify, she wasn’t ultimately called. The government did, however, introduce some of her text messages.

In one of the text messages, dated July 2021, Burke said “I’ve essentially agreed to work for them.” When the alleged ex-girlfriend asked whether there was a connection between the job and the contract, Burke said “technically, zero.”

The prosecution argued that “technically” is “what liars say when they are trying to cover something up.”

Burke didn’t inform anyone at the Navy that he was discussing employment with Next Jump until May 2022.

Burke’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, focused during his closing on what the government didn’t show.

Prosecutors offered zero evidence to suggest there were any discussions about a job between July 2021 and May 2022, he said.

He also highlighted testimony by Hannick and others suggesting that the rules around seeking an employment aren’t as clear as the government would have the jury believe. Burke’s understanding—that he wasn’t actively seeking employment and had rejected the offer in July—was reasonable, Parlatore said.

Judge Trevor N. McFadden presided over the case.

Burke’s alleged co-conspirators, Next Jump co-CEOs Charlie Kim and Meghan Messenger, pleaded not guilty to charges of bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery. Their trial is set to begin in August.

They asked to be tried separately from Burke so as not to be prejudiced by evidence admitted to prove counts with which they weren’t charged. They also said they expected their defenses to be “mutually exclusive.”

Among other things, they claim they relied in good faith on assurances from Burke that the employment discussions were proper, and say he represented that he could act as their “ambassador” to the Navy.

Burke is also represented by Parlatore Law Group LLP partner Toni O’Neill.

The case is United States v. Burke, D.D.C., No. 1:24-cr-00265, 5/19/25.