Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, were arrested last week on charges of providing thousands of dollars in gifts, including rented apartments and iPhones, to secret service agents, including one who was protecting First Lady Jill Biden. The Secret Service is the service responsible for protecting the president and other top US officials. “There is no indication that national security information has been breached,” said U.S. Judge Michael Harvey. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Harvey ordered the two men to remain under house arrest, subject to GPS surveillance, with their parents and to hand in their passports and stay away from airports and embassies. Harvey agreed to keep his order until Wednesday morning, while the government is considering whether to appeal. The judge said prosecutors had not shown that the defendants had tried to infiltrate the Secret Service with malicious intent and noted that they were so “spectacularly displaced” that there was no longer any danger of them continuing to present themselves as agents. Harvey said none of the defendants have been charged with violent crime and no one faces a harsh prison sentence if convicted – all evidence that works against the prosecution’s allegations that they pose a danger to the community. Harvey added that there had been “significantly worse and more dangerous cases of forgery” before the court in the past. At the same time, Harvey said he believes prosecutors have enough evidence to secure convictions in the case. The challenges prosecutors faced in persuading Harvey to arrest the defendants appeared to stem, at least in part, from the hasty nature of the investigation. Earlier Tuesday, federal prosecutor Joshua Rothstein told the judge that the FBI had to move before it was ready to go against the two after an undercover investigator told them he was in custody. At a hearing, Rothstein said the information came on April 4 after the Secret Service launched an internal investigation and placed four agents on administrative leave to accept gifts from Taherzadeh and Ali. “An investigator, as part of this internal investigation, contacted Mr Taherzadeh via email … saying he had to get information and Mr Taherzadeh responded,” Rothstein told the judge. Rothstein did not explain why the Secret Service investigator informed Taherzadeh about the investigation. There was no indication that the information was intended to protect the accused, but prompted the Justice Department to rush the next day for court approval for a warrant that preceded the arrests last Wednesday. “As this matter is pending before a federal court, it is not appropriate for the Secret Service to comment on prosecutors’ statements,” a Secret Service spokesman told Reuters. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Sarah N. Lynch? Editing by Will Dunham and Lincoln Feast. Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
