Trump transition adviser convicted on foreign-agent charges
A federal jury on Tuesday convicted Bijan Rafiekian, a former business partner of Michael Flynn, on a pair of foreign-agent felony charges stemming from work the two men did for Turkish interests during the final months of the Trump presidential campaign in 2016.
The verdicts, returned by jurors in Alexandria, Va., after a weeklong trial and only about four hours of deliberation, amount to a belated courtroom victory for special counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated the $600,000 lobbying and public relations contract at the heart of the case and then handed the matter off to other federal prosecutors after Flynn’s guilty plea to a false-statement charge in 2017.
Rafiekian, 67, faces up to 15 years in prison on the two felony counts against him: acting as an unregistered foreign agent in the U.S., and conspiracy to violate that law as well as to submit false statements to the Justice Department in a foreign-agent filing. Defendants are typically sentenced in accord with federal sentencing guidelines that result in far less than the maximum.
Flynn, who would go on to serve 24 days as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, had been expected to be a key witness at Rafiekian’s trial, offering testimony that would incriminate his former partner in a scheme to avoid disclosing that the Flynn Intel Group’s lobbying and public relations effort was actually directed and controlled by Turkish government officials.
Less than two weeks before the trial opened, however, an acrimonious row broke out between prosecutors and Flynn’s new defense attorneys, leading to an abrupt decision to drop Flynn as a witness.
The late shift — which appeared to upend the government’s case — came after prosecutors accused Flynn of retreating from admissions he made as part of his plea deal that he submitted false information to the Justice Department in a belated, March 2017 Foreign Agent Registration Act filing about the Turkey-related work.
Flynn’s lawyers claimed his assertion that he did not recall reading the submission before approving it was consistent with his prior statements, but prosecutors strenuously disagreed.
In Flynn’s absence, prosecutors relied on emails, Skype chats and other witnesses to make their case that the Flynn firm project Rafiekian spearheaded was approved at the highest levels of the Turkish government.
The short-lived research, public relations and lobbying effort focused on building public and government support for a key goal of the Turkish government: getting the U.S. to expel and extradite a dissident Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen. Gulen has lived in Pennsylvania for two decades and was blamed by Turkey’s current leadership for a coup attempt in July 2016.
Despite that focus, Flynn and Rafiekian claimed that the project was funded and directed by a private Dutch company owned by a Turkish businessman, Ekim Alptekin. Alptekin was indicted alongside Rafiekian last year but remains overseas.
While Flynn never took the witness stand, his role loomed large during much of the case, including in the defense’s closing arguments on Monday.
“Where is Michael Flynn?” Rafiekian’s defense lawyer Mark MacDougall asked, posting a photo of Flynn on TV screens in the courtroom and calling Flynn “a wholly owned subsidiary of the prosecution.”
While repeatedly casting aspersions on Flynn’s character — often by noting his firing from his White House post — MacDougall did not explicitly accuse Flynn of duping his client or of committing any crime. The defense attorney simply suggested that his absence from the government’s case was deeply suspicious.
The prosecution said the defense’s references to Flynn were an attempt to divert jurors from damaging evidence against Rafiekian, including Skype chats the FBI found on his computers in which Alptekin seemed to get the “green light” for the project from senior Turkish officials.
“Why are we talking about Flynn?” prosecutor Jim Gillis asked before skewering the defense’s argument as: “Don’t look at my guy. … Go look at Flynn. Keep your eye here while I pick your pocket.”
Among the witnesses called by prosecutors was Flynn’s former defense attorney Robert Kelner, who testified that Rafiekian did not tell him about some aspects of the involvement of Turkish officials.
Flynn’s new legal team, led by Sidney Powell, a Dallas attorney and strident Mueller critic, were present throughout the trial.
Following the guilty verdicts, Powell expressed doubts about the government’s case, while insisting that the outcome should not impact Flynn’s sentencing, which remains pending.
“General Flynn has cooperated with the government for two years. Obviously, they did not need his testimony to get a conviction,” Powell said. “The government could not articulate the elements of the offense, nor did it have any evidence to support its own definition of what was ‘material.’ This case is ripe for reversal by the district court or on appeal. It will not withstand scrutiny. In any event, General Flynn fulfilled his cooperation agreement.”
Asked for reaction to the verdicts, Trump‘s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said: “My interpretation is that the case against Flynn is riddled with so much prosecutorial misconduct that it overtakes everything else.“
Rafiekian, who did not testify in his own defense, was allowed to remain free pending sentencing, which was set for Oct. 18.
Justice Department officials said they hoped the guilty verdicts would send a message about the importance of adhering to U.S. laws requiring those acting for foreign governments to register and report on their activities.
“Rafiekian was held accountable for his actions and found guilty by a jury of his peers,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia said G. Zachary Terwilliger said. “I want to thank the investigators and prosecutors for their thorough investigation, extensive briefing, and commitment to this case.”
“Today’s verdict should stand as a deterrent to any malign foreign influence that undermines the integrity of our political processes,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said. “Through misrepresentations in his FARA filing, Mr. Rafiekian attempted to deceive the public and influence key leaders on behalf of Turkey. The Department of Justice treats these crimes with the gravity that they deserve.”
The Iranian-American businessman, who was Flynn’s main partner in his short-lived consulting firm, also served as an adviser to the Trump transition team on national security issues. Rafiekian previously served on the board of the Export-Import Bank through Senate-confirmed appointments by President George W. Bush.
Whether the verdicts will stand is unclear. During the trial, U.S. District Court Judge Anthony Trenga indicated that he was giving serious consideration to a defense motion to acquit Rafiekian on the grounds that the prosecution’s evidence was too weak to sustain a conviction.
Trenga still has that motion under advisement and will face new urgings from Rafiekian’s defense attorneys to throw out the jury’s verdicts. After the jury returned its guilty verdicts Tuesday, the judge set a Sept. 5 hearing on that motion.
“Mr. Rafiekian is, of course, disappointed in the verdict,” MacDougall said in a statement, joined by fellow defense attorneys Stacey Mitchell and Bob Trout. “We look forward to being heard by the Court on that date and clearing Mr. Rafiekian of these charges.”
No date has been set for Flynn’s sentencing on the false-statement charge he pleaded guilty to in 2017. The Washington-based judge handling that case has repeatedly put off the sentencing to allow Flynn to complete his work with prosecutors in the Rafiekian case.
It’s unclear how prosecutors’ decision not to call Flynn will affect his ultimate sentence.
Other disclosures at the Rafiekian trial could also impact Flynn’s sentencing, including a startling but cryptic statement that prosecutors issued just before the trial, indicating that the U.S. government has various kinds of undisclosed, classified evidence that the Turkish government reached out to Flynn through Alptekin “because of Michael Flynn’s relationship with an ongoing presidential campaign.”
While Flynn wasn’t charged in the case against his former business partner, prosecutors tried to label him as a co-conspirator in order to win admission of statements he made to Kian during the Turkey-linked project.
It seems possible the judge sentencing Flynn will view the verdicts as confirming that Flynn was effectively on the payroll of the Turkish government while working on Trump’s presidential bid.
Mueller’s team initially recommended that Flynn not receive any prison time. It’s not certain whether they will change that stance, perhaps by arguing that what his lawyers say is his latest version of events related to the Turkey project amounts to a reversal that amounts to a lack of cooperation.
Powell, Flynn’s lawyer, said on Tuesday that the developments should have no impact on Flynn’s sentence.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine
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via DMT.NEWS jgerstein@politico.com (Josh Gerstein), Khareem Sudlow
