Courtesy: DOJ One of the two men accused of posing as federal law enforcement agents in Washington offered to give a $ 2,000 gun to a U.S. intelligence agent who had been given the protection of First Lady Jill Biden, according to the report. court. This testimony also states that one of the defendants, Arian Taherzadeh, lent what was allegedly a “government vehicle” to the wife of an unnamed Secret Service agent, and that Taherzadeh “also provided her with a generator. The Secret Service agent lived in an apartment building in Washington on the floor below Taherzadeh’s apartment, according to the file, which was compiled by an FBI agent to support the criminal charges against Taherzadeh, 40, and his 35-year-old co-accused. . , Haider Ali. Taherzadeh also allegedly gave members of the Secret Service and an employee of the Ministry of Homeland Security “rental apartments (with a total annual rent of more than $ 40,000 per apartment), iPhone, surveillance systems, drone, flat screen TV, storage case “assault weapon, generator and law enforcement tools,” the statement said. One of those agents was assigned to protect the White House as part of the Secret Service’s uniform department, the statement said. The agent lived without rent in a three-bedroom apartment provided by Taherzadeh in the same complex, according to the testimony, which stated that the home was normally rented for more than $ 48,000 a year. Taherzadeh told the agent that a section of DHS “had approved additional rooms as part of its work and that [agent] “He could live in one of them for free,” the statement said. “The investigation has confirmed that there are no such cases [DHS] work and that it did not approve such expenditure. “ Taherzadeh and Ali were arrested Wednesday during a raid on the building in southeastern DC on charges of “falsifying a federal officer.” Both men are due to appear in federal court in Washington later Thursday. Four members of the Secret Service have been placed on administrative leave pending further investigation into the case. In a statement on Thursday, the Secret Service said it “cooperated and continues to work with its law enforcement partners in this ongoing investigation.” “All staff involved in this matter are on administrative leave and do not have access to Secret Service facilities, equipment and systems,” the service said. “The Secret Service adheres to the highest levels of professional standards and conduct and will remain in active coordination with the Ministries of Justice and Homeland Security.” Photographs by Arian Taherzadeh submitted to the DOJ. Courtesy: DOJ The FBI said in an affidavit that both men, from February 2020 until their arrest, pretended to be agents working for the Department of Homeland Security, using discreet and firearms used by federal agents. The affidavit says the men did so “to refine members of the federal police and defense community.” An affidavit from an FBI agent says the men ‘s fraudulent act came to light on March 14 when a U.S. Post inspector responded to the apartment complex to investigate an alleged assault on a mail carrier. During the investigation into the incident, the inspector learned from members of the group that Taherzadeh and Ali, “who are represented as Special Agents of the Internal Security Investigation Department (HSI), may have witnessed the attack.”
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Read more about CNBC political coverage: When the inspector interviewed both men, they identified themselves as investigators from the U.S. Special Police Investigation Unit and “replaced the” special police “of the city of Washington.” The men also claimed to have participated in covert gang-related investigations, as well as to conduct investigations into violence in the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, the affidavit said. Residents of the apartment complex told the postal inspector that the men “have installed video surveillance in various parts of the complex” and that they had told residents that “they can access, at any time, the mobile phones” of the residents, according to the jury. deposit. The inspector found that the men “were in regular contact with several members” of the Secret Service living in the band, who had received gifts from the men. The record also states that a witness, who did not work in law enforcement, told the FBI that Taherzadeh “recruited” this person for a possible job at DHS and to investigate a government contractor who provided support to the Department of Defense. and the US community intelligence services. As part of this fake recruitment process, Taherzadeh told the witness that he would have to shoot the witness with an air rifle “to assess [their] “Response and tolerance of pain,” the statement said. The witness agreed and was shot by Taherzadeh, the statement said.
