The Justice Department’s drive to crack down on violations of foreign-agent legal guidelines suffered one other blow Tuesday as a federal decide overturned guilty verdicts a jury returned towards a enterprise associate of Gen. Michael Flynn over work the pair did for Turkish pursuits in the course of the Trump presidential marketing campaign in 2016.
U.S. District Courtroom Decide Anthony Trenga, who presided over the weeklong trial of Bijan Rafiekian in July in Alexandria, Virginia, ruled that prosecutors put forward inadequate proof to sustain the jury’s discovering that Rafiekian knowingly operated as a Turkish authorities agent and deliberately did not notify U.S. officials about his work.
“There isn't a substantial proof that Rafiekian agreed to function topic to the course or control of the Turkish government,” Trenga wrote as he ordered the acquittal of the 67-year-old Iranian-American businessman and former board member for the U.S. Export-Import Financial institution.
“There isn't a proof of any statements by Rafiekian that would permit a rational juror to seek out that Rafiekian had agreed to operate as an agent of the Turkish government, or that he thought he was appearing as a Turkish agent,” the decide added.
The ruling, which prosecutors might attraction, is the second critical defeat this month for an effort by Justice Division officers to step up enforcement of the Overseas Agent Registration Act and different legal guidelines aimed toward checking overseas affect on the U.S. political system.
On Sept. four, a jury in Washington took lower than five hours to return a not guilty verdict for former Obama White Home Counsel Greg Craig on a cost of mendacity to Justice’s FARA unit about his work for Ukraine on a legal undertaking arranged by Paul Manafort, the longtime GOP political marketing consultant and worldwide campaign adviser.
The losses in each instances are additionally bitter notes for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of ties between the Trump marketing campaign and Russia. Mueller’s office was deeply concerned in probing each the Rafiekian and Craig instances, however ultimately transferred the matters off to different prosecutors.
In a way, the Mueller staff by no means utterly handed off the instances, nevertheless, as a result of certainly one of its prosecutors — Brandon Van Grack — was named by the Justice Department earlier this yr to oversee FARA enforcement. He was also noticed within the courtroom at occasions throughout each trials.
The case towards Rafiekian, who served as an adviser to the Trump transition staff, seems to have grown out of investigators’ interest in Flynn and in his overseas ties during his time working as a senior aide on the Trump marketing campaign and through his temporary tenure as nationwide safety adviser earlier than being fired by President Donald Trump in February 2017.
It was not immediately clear how the failure of the government’s prosecution of Rafiekian would impression the complicated legal saga involving Flynn, who is tentatively set to be sentenced Dec. 18 by U.S. District Courtroom Decide Emmet Sullivan in Washington. Flynn had been slated to be a key prosecution witness towards Rafiekian with Flynn’s attorneys even looking for a delay in Flynn’s sentencing last yr so that he might take the stand in the Rafiekian trial.
But after a heated change with a brand new legal staff for Flynn just prior to Rafiekian’s trial, prosecutors dropped plans to name Flynn. As an alternative, they informed the decide they might argue Flynn was an uncharged co-conspirator in Rafiekian’s alleged crimes.
In his 39-page opinion, Trenga detailed that shift and noted that Flynn was “in some elements” extra concerned than Rafiekian within the undertaking, which urged the U.S. authorities to expel a dissident Turkish cleric who has lived in Pennsylvania for years named Fethullah Gulen. The decide referred to as “notably telling” the government’s insistence for months that Flynn was not part of the alleged conspiracy, only to abruptly reverse course days before the trial and assert that he was.
If Sullivan views Flynn as chargeable for the demise of the government’s case towards Rafiekian, the former national safety adviser might wind up with a stiffer sentence than he may otherwise anticipate.
Nevertheless, if Sullivan sees Trenga’s opinion as undermining the notion that there was anything unlawful concerning the work Rafiekian and Flynn did for Turkish interests or their failure to register as Turkish brokers, Flynn may profit. The ruling might even be a boon to arguments from Flynn’s new legal workforce that Mueller’s staff bamboozled him into pleading responsible to a false-statement cost by exaggerating his exposure to legal liability on numerous fronts, together with from the Turkey-related challenge.
Flynn’s attorneys did not reply to messages Tuesday night time looking for comment on the choice.
Much of Trenga’s ruling is dedicated to disputed legal issues in the case, together with what makes one an agent of a overseas government beneath the statute prosecutors used to charged Rafiekian.
The decide, who expressed doubts concerning the adequacy of the government’s evidence on several occasions before and in the course of the trial, additionally appeared to be looking for an evidence of why jurors convicted Rafiekian in just three hours on proof the decide thought-about missing.
Trenga, an appointee of President George W. Bush, advised that one risk is that jurors concluded that the Turks have been controlling the challenge based mostly on emails the jury saw from Ekim Alpetkin, an absent co-defendant in the case and an alleged middleman between Rafiekian and the Turkish government.
In one of many messages, Alptekin stated he had a “a inexperienced mild” from prime Turkish officials “to discuss confidentiality, price range and the scope of the contract.”
The decide allowed the jury to see those emails as evidence of what Rafiekian was advised, however jurors were not supposed to use them to attract conclusions about what Turkish officers had truly completed or permitted. Trenga stated his instructions might not have adequately emphasised that crucial nuance.
“These statements were not competent proof upon which to discover any involvement of the Turkish government or that Alptekin had any specific relationship or position relative to the Turkish authorities,” the decide wrote.
Trenga additionally raised considerations a few cryptic statement prosecutors offered to the defense just before the trial that the U.S. government had numerous kinds of undisclosed, categorised proof that the Turkish authorities reached out to Flynn by way of Alptekin “due to Michael Flynn’s relationship with an ongoing presidential campaign” — evidently, Trump’s White Home bid.
Jurors heard about that statement from each side on the trial, however the decide stated there have been “substantial points” raised by the defense about whether Rafiekian’s legal professionals ought to have been advised extra concerning the categorised evidence earlier in the process.
If Trenga’s ruling stands, Rafiekian could not be retried. Nevertheless, the decide stated that if an appeals courtroom overturns his rulings concerning the evidence, he would still grant the defendant a new trial.
Prosecutors did not instantly point out whether they’d attraction the ruling.
“The U.S. Lawyer's Workplace is reviewing the Courtroom's opinion vacating the jury's verdict within the Rafiekian matter. We wouldn't have any additional comment right now,” a spokesman for federal prosecutors in Alexandria stated Tuesday afternoon.
Rafiekian’s authorized group, which appeared surprised by the fast verdict two months ago, hailed the decide’s choice as a triumph for his or her shopper and the rule of regulation.
“Bijan and his household are relieved and searching forward to getting on with their lives,” the defense attorneys stated. “We are all grateful to the Courtroom. Our system continues to be sturdy and, in this case, justice has been carried out.”
Article initially revealed on POLITICO Magazine
Src: Judge overturns guilty verdicts against Trump transition adviser on foreign-agent charges
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