- DOJ rushed to arrest two men after the Secret Service 'inadvertently' disclosed an investigation.
- A magistrate judge ordered the two men released from jail over the objection of federal prosecutors.
- A prosecutor said the two men "compromised" Secret Service agents by posing as law enforcement.
Just days before the FBI arrested him, a man accused of impersonating law enforcement to ingratiate himself with Secret Service agents was "inadvertently" informed of the investigation by the Secret Service itself, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday.
The Secret Service placed four agents on administrative leave last week in connection with an alleged scheme, in which Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, are charged with posing as federal officers and lavishing free apartments, electronics and other gifts on law enforcement officials.
During a court appearance Tuesday, assistant US attorney Joshua Rothstein said Ali and Taherzadeh's conduct had "compromised" the agents, prompting the Secret Service to open an internal inquiry "in tandem" with the Justice Department's criminal investigation.
But the Secret Service's efforts wound up compromising the parallel criminal investigation, prompting the Justice Department to rush to take Taherzadeh and Ali into custody.
On April 4 — two days before his and Ali's arrest — a Secret Service investigator "reached out to Mr. Taherzadeh via email," Rothstein said. The email did not state the "nature of the investigation," he said, but conveyed that the government was "conducting some sort of review."
"That is what then tipped him off," Rothstein said.
The following day, prosecutors contacted the chambers of Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey, who signed the criminal complaint against Taherzadeh and Ali that night. The FBI waited until the next day, April 6, to arrest the two men due to "concern about firearms we knew were present," Rothstein said.
A Secret Service spokesperson declined to comment.
"Because this matter is pending adjudication by a federal court, it is not appropriate for the Secret Service to make any comments on prosecutorial statements," the spokesperson said.
Rothstein recounted the frantic buildup to the two men's arrest as Harvey weighed a Justice Department request to keep Ali and Taherzadeh detained as they face charges. Harvey declined to continue their incarceration — ordering that they be released to home confinement with their families, among other restrictions — but agreed to stay his ruling until Wednesday morning as the Justice Department weighs an appeal.
In a proceeding that stretched three days — beginning Friday afternoon, resuming Monday afternoon, and concluding Tuesday — Rothstein argued that the two men posed a danger if released, pointing to the "arsenal of weapons" found at their apartment complex. Rothstein also said that Ali "made claims to witness" interviewed in the investigation that he had ties to Pakistan's intelligence service.
Ali's defense lawyer, Gregory Smith, called the assertion "preposterous."
Harvey found that the Justice Department had failed to meet its burden of showing that the two men posed such a danger to the community that they needed to remain incarcerated. And he appeared skeptical of the Justice Department's arguments that Ali posed a national security or flight risk, saying "his whole life his here" and noting that his extended family and his wife and four young children all live nearby.
"At this point, there's been no showing that national security information was in fact compromised," Harvey said.
In a criminal complaint unsealed last week, the Justice Department alleged that Ali and Taherzadeh lavished gifts on Secret Service agents, providing access to a black GMC SUV — which they claimed was a government vehicle — and rent-free apartments, each with annual rents topping $40,000. Taherzadeh offered to buy a $2,000 assault rifle for an agent assigned to First Lady Jill Biden's security detail, according to the complaint.
At their apartment complex, FBI agents discovered multiple firearms, boxes of ammunition, handcuffs, brass knuckles, and equipment for breaching doors, including a battering ram. They also found a binder with a list of residents at the complex, along with a box of documents with profiles of individual people, prosecutors said.
Rothstein said the Justice Department was investigating whether bribery occurred in connection with the alleged scheme.
Rothstein said law enforcement and military officials living at the apartment complex were "shocked" to learn that they had been duped into believing Taherzadeh and Ali were also federal officers. But Rothstein said Tuesday that Taherzadeh had aroused suspicion with some.
Rothstein said Taherzadeh approached a naval intelligence officer in a way that caused the officer enough concern to report the encounter to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, or NCIS.
"So we are also looking at that," he said.