{"id":2028511,"date":"2023-09-11T19:33:04","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T23:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-drops-charges-against-gen-flynns-ex-business-partner-bijan-rafiekian\/"},"modified":"2023-09-11T19:36:27","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T23:36:27","slug":"doj-drops-charges-against-gen-flynns-ex-business-partner-bijan-rafiekian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-drops-charges-against-gen-flynns-ex-business-partner-bijan-rafiekian\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ clears Gen. Flynn&#8217;s ex-business partner, Bijan Rafiekian."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdoj-drops-charges-against-gen-flynns-ex-business-partner-bijan-rafiekian%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2028511&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div data-post-content=\"true\" class=\"post_content\" id=\"post_content\">\n<p>The Department \u200dof Justice (DOJ) has abandoned a stale prosecution of Bijan Rafiekian, a former\u2063 business partner of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.<\/p>\n<p>After being \u200bstuck in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scotus-rules-for-religious-freedom-another-slap-to-newsom\/\" title=\"SCOTUS Rules For Religious Freedom, Another Slap To Newsom\">appeals process<\/a> for more than\u2062 four years, the DOJ was facing the prospect\u2062 of having to try the case in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-drops-charges-against-gen-flynns-ex-business-partner-bijan-rafiekian\/\" title=\"DOJ clears Gen. Flynn's ex-business partner, Bijan Rafiekian.\">federal district court anew<\/a>. Instead, on \u200cSept. 11, it\u200b asked \u200bfor \u2064it to \u2064be \u2064dismissed. District Judge Anthony Trenga granted the \u2063request later that day.<\/p>\n<p>The \u200ccase stemmed from the FBI&#8217;s 2016 investigation into associates of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump over allegations of collusion \u200bwith Russia. Gen.\u2063 Flynn,\u2062 who previously headed the \u200cDefense Intelligence Agency in the Obama administration, was advising the Trump campaign and \u200bbecame a target of the investigation in August 2016.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h2>Related Story<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/epochtv\/gen-flynn-criticizes-pentagons-3-billion-overestimation-of-ukraine-aid-should-not-have-occurred-5279012\">Gen. Flynn Criticizes\u200d Pentagon&#8217;s \u2062$3 Billion Overestimation of Ukraine Aid: &#8216;Should Not Have Occurred&#8217;<\/a>\n      <\/li>\n<li>5\/19\/2023<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Subsequent investigations\u200d concluded that the Russia\u2062 probe wasn\u2019t properly predicated and resulted\u2062 in illegal surveillance of Trump campaign associate \u2064Carter \u2064Page.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Rafiekian was convicted in \u200d2019\u200b of acting \u2062as an unregistered agent of Turkey and conspiring\u2063 to violate the Foreign \u200cAgent Registration Act (FARA) based on a 2016 lobbying job for Turkish\u200d businessman Kamil Ekim Alptekin. Judge Trenga tossed the verdict for lack of\u2064 evidence. The DOJ appealed and the\u200b Fourth Circuit appeals court reversed the decision in 2021,\u2063 but gave the judge a chance to instead make an argument for a new trial. The judge \u2062did so in 2022 and the Fourth Circuit affirmed the decision on May\u200d 18.<\/p>\n<div class=\"my-5\">\n<p>    \u2063    &#8220;Overall, the \u200bgreat evidentiary weight is that Rafiekian did not agree to act, or would not\u200c have understood\u2063 that Alptekin was proposing that he act, \u200cor that he would\u2064 be seen as\u2063 having agreed to act, subject to the direction or control \u200dof Turkey,&#8221;\u200b Judge Trenga said in his 2022 opinion (<a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.vaed.400989\/gov.uscourts.vaed.400989.412.0_9.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pdf<\/a>).\n  <\/div>\n<div class=\"shortcode post-related-videos\">\n<div class=\"lazyload-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"lazyload-placeholder\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The new trial was set\u2063 for Oct.\u2063 30 and the parties were scheduled to update the judge on their progress on Sept. 13. The DOJ moved to dismiss instead.<\/p>\n<div class=\"my-5\">\n<p>    \u2064  \u201cAfter carefully\u2064 considering the Fourth Circuit\u2019s recent decision in this case and the principles of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-three-indictments-trump-is-facing\/\" title=\"Trump is facing three indictments. Here's what you need to know.\">federal \u2064prosecution<\/a>, the United States believes it is not in \u2063the public interest to pursue the case against \u200bdefendant Bijan Rafiekian further,\u201d the motion\u200d said (<a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.vaed.400989\/gov.uscourts.vaed.400989.431.0_3.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pdf<\/a>).\n  <\/div>\n<div class=\"my-5\">\n<p>    The dismissal concludes \u2064one of the few remaining loose ends of the Russia probe.<\/p>\n<h2>Who&#8217;s Foreign Agent?<\/h2>\n<p>    \u2062 The Rafiekian case allowed the \u2063courts \u200cto weigh in\u2063 on how far the DOJ can go \u200cto label\u2063 Americans as foreign agents.\n  <\/p><\/div>\n<p>The \u200dprosecutors were trying to argue that merely agreeing to do \u201csomething the foreign \u200dprincipal\u200b requests\u201d makes one \u200ban \u201cagent\u201d \u2062and that one could become such an agent even unilaterally \u2064\u201cwithout a\u200d foreign government\u2019s participation and assent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both Judge Trenga and the Fourt Circuit rejected such a \u201cbroad \u2062expansive reading\u201d of \u200bthe law, the \u2064judge said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"my-5\">\n<p>    \u200d \u200c  The government needs\u200b to \u2063prove \u2062that a foreign official \u201cdirected or controlled\u201d the agent\u2019s actions and that the agent agreed to follow such direction.\u2063 Being a \u201cwannabe\u2064 emissary\u201d and \u201cacting in accordance with\u2064 foreign interests or by privately pledging allegiance\u201d isn\u2019t enough, he said.<br \/>\n \u2063<\/p>\n<h2>Flynn Case<\/h2>\n<p>    \u200b  The\u200d process with \u2063Mr. Rafiekian is intertwined with the Flynn case, \u200dwhich is itself <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/flynn-case-85-lies-contradictions-oddities-and-unusual-occurrences-3382308\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">riddled<\/a> with\u200b troubling occurrences.\n  <\/div>\n<p>Documents from \u200cthe Russia\u2064 probe indicate\u2063 that the FBI asked \u200dthe DOJ to \u200bexamine \u2063whether the probe\u2019s targets\u200b had any lapses \u200din reporting \u2062foreign lobbying\u2062 work. \u2064In November\u2062 2016, \u200bthe DOJ questioned a \u200bjob Gen. Flynn and Mr.\u200b Rafiekian did under their then-fledgling consultancy, Flynn Intel Group (FIG), for\u200c Mr. Alptekin.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the \u2063FBI \u2062agents on the Flynn case\u2063 concluded it was \u200ba dead end and moved to\u200d close it. \u200dIn early January 2017, FBI leadership \u200dintervened to keep the case \u2064open on the legally \u200cquestionable theory \u2064that Gen. Flynn\u200b violated the Loga<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The DOJ dropped the prosecution of Bijan Rafiekian, a former business partner of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, after a lengthy appeals process. Avoiding a retrial in federal district court, the decision was made on Sept. 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":2028512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2028511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2028511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2028512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2028511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2028511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2028511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}