A defense lawyer said in a court filing that one of the two men charged with pretending to be a DHS agent may have been tricked by several Secret Service agents.
The weight of the evidence is against Mr. Ali's lawyer wrote in the filing that Ali is not strong.
It is not clear if Mr. Ali ever claimed to be a federal government employee or if he knew that was false.
A review of Ali's interviews with a U.S. postal inspector suggests that he may have believed his co-conspirator.
Ali, 35, was the one who filed ahead of the court hearing for him. The men were taken into custody.
The men are being held without bail because prosecutors say they are a danger to the community.
Lawyers for the defendants asked a judge to release them on bail, saying prosecutors overstated the seriousness of the case.
Ali's lawyer said he has four very young children and is badly needed back at home since his wife underwent surgery.
Federal sentencing guidelines would likely recommend a sentence of zero to six months in prison for Ali if he were convicted of the Class E felony. The lawyer said that he would be eligible for a sentence of no more than two years.
The story only gets worse after the arrest of the men, as they are accused of giving gifts to Secret Service agents and giving them free apartments.
Because of the fast pace of the investigation, there are many facts that we do not know.
The facts that we know about the Defendants are that they lied about their identities for years, stored a cache of weapons and surveillance equipment in their apartments, and tried to cover up their crimes. Both defendants should be taken into custody.
The Secret Service agents who protected the first lady and the White House were among those deceived by the men.
The defendants had access codes that allowed them to enter all of the apartments in the Washington D.C. Navy Yard area. Law-enforcement agents live in a number of those apartments.
According to prosecutors, Ali told witnesses that he had connections to the ISI.
Four Secret Service agents have been placed on leave.
The government's speculative assertions and rhetorical flourishes aside, there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that Mr. Taherzadeh would be a risk of obstruction of justice.
The government has failed to demonstrate that this is a detainable offense in the first instance or that there are no conditions of release that would assure the safety of the community.
Law enforcement has obtained two videos of Taherzadeh shooting a handgun and assault rifle at a shooting range believed to be in Northern Virginia. In one video, Taherzadeh appears to be wearing a long sleeve shirt with a USSS insignia on the arm. AThe investigation of Ali and the 40-year-old Taherzadeh began last month when a U.S. postal inspector questioned them in connection with the assault of a mail carrier at their Washington apartment building.
The men were told by the postal inspector that they were DHS agents.
Ali told the inspector that he was an investigator with the USSP Special Investigations Unit.
USSP is a company owned by a man. It is not a part of the Department of Homeland Security.
The inspector asked Ali if USSP was part of the DHS. He replied, "As I understand it." We do investigations for the DHS.
After the inspector told him USSP was not part of the DHS, Ali replied that he had been speaking to the best of his knowledge.
Ali was asked why he described the special agent as a DHS agent.
The postal inspector was told by Ali that he is a HSI.
When the inspector told Ali that he wasn't an agent, Ali said he understood. He is conducting large investigations.
Smith wrote that Mr. Ali should not have believed Taherzadeh.
Many experienced law enforcement agents fell for the ruse, according to the lawyer.
If all of those experienced federal agents, with their years or even decades of experience, did not see through the claims of Mr. Ali, why is it fair to expect more from him?
More serious allegations could be made against Ali and his wife.
Within the last day, the Government has confirmed that the magazines seized from Ali's Glock 19 and the Sig Sauer were illegal high-capacity magazines.
A former U.S. Marine has come forward to tell investigators that the duo tried to recruit him based on their false DHS credentials. He said he had seen illegal weapons in the presence of Ali, including an illegal rifle.
The filing said that neither of the men had a license to carry a gun outside of their homes.
Tishman Speyer, the real estate giant which owns the apartment complex where the defendants maintained their five apartments, won a default judgment for more than $222,000 in late rent.
According to the lawsuit, United States Special Police never paid rent for the apartments after they leased them in late 2020.
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