Bijan Rafiekian, a former business partner in Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s now-defunct consultancy firm, has been acquitted of acting as an agent of the Turkish government without informing the U.S. government and two related charges.
U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga said in a Sept. 24 opinion that “the evidence was insufficient as a matter of law for the jury to convict Rafiekian.” He also conditionally granted Rafiekian a new trial if his acquittal is later vacated or reversed, “because the verdict was against the heavy weight of the evidence and because of other issues pertaining to the conduct of that trial.”
