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On Sept. 25, in a highly anticipated ruling, federal judge Anthony Trenga tossed the guilty verdict a Virginia jury returned in late July against Michael Flynn’s former Flynn Intel Group (FIG) partner, Bijan Rafiekian. Following a six-day trial, federal prosecutors convinced a jury to convict Rafiekian of acting as an unregistered agent of Turkey, conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of Turkey, and conspiring to make willful and material false statements and omissions in a Foreign Agents Registration Acts (FARA) filing. But after hearing the same evidence, Judge Trenga concluded that the jury acted unreasonably and entered a judgment of acquittal in Rafiekian’s favor.
The reaction from the right was swift. “Judge Trenga penned a thorough and brilliant decision that is correct on the law and the facts,” Flynn’s attorney Sidney Powell told The Federalist. “This was another case without a crime—brought by prosecutors who were willing to criminalize innocent behavior in furtherance of their own agenda,” Powell added.
Trenga’s opinion confirms Powell’s take. While the government sought to portray Rafiekian as an agent of Turkey, the court found no “rational juror could find” that Rafiekian knowingly acted—or caused others to act—on behalf of the Turkish government. Not only was there “no evidence of any actual or implied agreement between Rafiekian and the government of Turkey or any official of the government of Turkey,” the court stressed that Rafiekian had only one contact with Turkish officials, which occurred during a brief September 2016 meeting. And nothing said at that meeting suggested Rafiekian agreed to operate at the behest of Turkey officials.
The court also rejected the government’s attempt to cast Kamil Elkin Alptekin and his Dutch company, Inovo, as intermediaries for Turkey, finding instead that while Rafiekian agreed to work for Alptekin and Inovo, there was no evidence that Rafiekian had also agreed to act as an agent of Turkey. (Prosecutors also indicted Alptekin, but his case has yet to be brought to trial because he remains in Turkey.)
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See Also:
(1) What’s Inside The Latest Documents From Michael Flynn’s Court Case
