Josh Kovensky at Talking Points Memo reports the two men arrested in connection with a still unexplained scheme were tipped-off - by the Secret Service.
Original story: Before federal agents stormed a luxury apartment building in D.C. last week, the suspects accused of impersonating federal agents already knew they were under investigation.
They had been tipped off by the Secret Service two days earlier.
That misstep by the government has gotten its case off on the wrong foot, rushing prosecutors into a series of embarrassing errors and miscues.
Under the gun by an error of the government’s doing, prosecutors have been scrambling to recover. It hasn’t been pretty.
They’ve misstated facts about the case in open court and in written filings. Public defenders for the accused have pounced, with one accusing the government of “impersonating this case as a national security threat.”
With its investigation still ongoing and the raid rushed by the tipoff from the Secret Service, the Justice Department didn’t had all its ducks in a row before going into court, a rare departure from the usual methodical and laborious preparation of a federal criminal case.
As a result, with the Justice Department not publicly offering an overarching theory of the case that explains the motive for or purpose of the alleged scheme, speculation has run wild.
emphasis added
This story was already bizarre enough: see FBI arrests phony homeland security agents. (stlawrence, April 6) and Disturbing details emerge about the two men arrested for posing as federal agents (Jen Hayden, April 7).
From TPM (link up top):
The initial facts appeared dramatic and sinister: the duo were accused of giving gifts to Secret Service agents, including a $2,000 AR-15 and free apartments. Ali, one witness purportedly said, had bragged of his ties to the ISI – Pakistan’s foreign intelligence service, while his travel history showed evidence of visits to Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, and Egypt.
The government was forced to scramble once they realized the two suspects in the case had been tipped off; they are now backing off from some of the allegations and the attorneys for the two men are pouncing on the missteps.
Missteps like this:
The DOJ had been investigating the case of alleged impersonation with Secret Service agents as supposed targets. On Monday, Rothstein said, the Secret Service put five of its agents on leave, and an investigator with the service, responsible for protecting the country’s most powerful officials, did something that federal prosecutors did not expect: reached out to the investigation’s target directly.
emphasis added
So….
Tuesday afternoon, the magistrate judge denied the government’s request to detain the defendants pending trial and ordered their release on certain conditions.
The judge cited the defendants’ “sophomoric behavior” to suggest that the pair were not spies. “That’s not how foreign intelligence agents work,” the judge said. “In a case like this, release should be the norm.”
Apparently sophomoric behavior is contagious. Nobody is coming out of this looking good to date. If and when actual facts are uncovered, it will be interesting to see how this turns out.
UPDATE — A Correction: I would be remiss if I didn’t mention something else in connection with this mess. Charles P. Pierce had an acerbic take on it:
I'm Surprised These Secret Service Agents are Allowed Out by Themselves.
For two years, federal agents, including Secret Service personnel on the White House detail, allegedly bought bags of magic beans from two fake Homeland Security agents
Pierce is quoting from CNN: he picked up this grace note of competence.
The scam was brought to light only when it came to the attention of the obviously more diligent government gumshoes in the employ of…the United States Postal Service.
Taherzadeh and Ali's alleged ruse was uncovered when a US Postal Inspector started investigating an alleged assault of a USPS letter carrier in an apartment complex where the two men allegedly had multiple units, according to court documents. The inspector interviewed the men as potential witnesses of the assault, and they identified themselves as investigators with the US Special Police investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol as well as gang activity, the documents said. Throughout the investigation, the inspector learned that the two men had given gifts to members of the USSS. The inspector provided the information to the DHS Office of Inspector General, which then contacted the FBI, according to the affidavit.
This is a story worth following, if only for how it demonstrates that, when you want the national security properly defended, leave it to the USPS.