FBI entrapment and the Counterintelligence issues: Anna Gabrielian and Jamie Lee Henry Story - Links and Articles Review
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A former Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist and her spouse, an Army doctor — who are charged with providing sensitive medical information to an undercover FBI agent who they believed was a representative of the Russian government — are seeking to argue that they were entrapped, new court records show.
Selected Articles - Michael Novakhov's favorite articles on Inoreader - The News And Times
Was this anti-Armenian - anti-Trans "#DoctorsPlot", with the FBI ENTRAPMENT (#FBIENTRAPMENT), fed to them: on the long #SilverSpoon (QUANTO?) via the mysterious channels by the Azerbaijani (anti)-Intelligence?
— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) September 30, 2022
Iz ziz one of the #FBI joint global projects? https://t.co/Ulgqy2sGPR
#FBI FBI: Disclose the details of this case, which looks like one of the classic #FBIManufacturedPlots with #FBIEntrapment, with the additional and important twist: the possible involvement of the Foreign Powers!
— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) October 1, 2022
anna gabrielian and jamie lee henry - GS https://t.co/PtHHMD4Vg1 pic.twitter.com/RW1kDPTX4t
fbi entrapment as legal defense - GS
Jamie Henry fbi entrapment - GS
Anna Gabrielian and Jamie Lee Henry
Anna Gabrielian and Jamie Lee Henry Story: FBI entrapment and the Counterintelligence issues
The whole picture, the design of this "operation" itself point to entrapment. For me, the contemporaneous, occurring at the same time, association with the other, geopolitical events, was suspicious.
See my news reviews at that time:
Links:
https://thenewsandtimes.blogspot.com/search?q=anna+gabrielian+and+jamie+lee+henry ...
https://thenewsandtimes.blogspot.com/2022/10/saved-web-pages-daily-report-at-9-pm.html ...
https://thenewsandtimes.blogspot.com/2022/10/selected-articles-review-at-11-am.html
There were only two noticeable events at that time: this story and Armenia - Azerbaijan negotiations. I had the impression that this new "Doctors Plot" story, as digested, understood, and reused by the Azerbaijani Intelligence Service students, was designed and planted by them. The purpose was to disparage and ridicule the Armenian side by associating it with scandalous (for their primitive minds and outlooks) "trans" connection, with allusion to the idea of "TRANS-Caucasian Republic".
Exploring this "geopolitical connection" may further point to the Azerbaijani agent or agents with the ability to influence the FBI, or with some "special connections" with them, in my opinion. Lately, their activities in the US were well publicized:
Azerbaijani Intelligence Service tries to bribe their way into American political system.
See rep. Henry Cuellar and Azerbaijan - GS
The Azerbaijani (Jewish) oligarchs were also very active in the Trump election affair.
This connection should be explored to the fullest.
This is possibly the Counterintelligence issue, and the important one.
Michael Novakhov | 9:20 AM 8/27/2023 - Post Link
Twitter Links:
https://twitter.com/mikenov/status/1576189767716581376
https://twitter.com/mikenov/status/1575843378780143618
Of 10 billionaires with Kremlin ties who funneled political contributions to Donald Trump and a number of top Republican leaders, at least five are Jewish
May 23, 2018
May 23, 2018
The special prosecutor’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election offers an unsettling journey for anyone steeped in Russian Jewry, and the transition from the repression of the former Soviet Union to the relative freedoms of the Russian Federation.
Earlier this week, the FBI raided the Laredo, Texas, home of Rep. Henry Cuellar. According to ABC News, the raid was made in connection with an ongoing investigation linked to Azerbaijan. While little is known about this specific FBI probe, which CNN reported involves the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section, Cuellar’s relationship to Azerbaijan is well documented.
In fact, an Azerbaijani organization Cuellar has had close ties with over the years was previously the subject of an FBI investigation, with its president pleading guilty to charges of wooing members of Congress by serving as a front for the nation’s wholly owned oil company.
In January 2013, Cuellar and his spouse flew to Turkey and Azerbaijan on a trip sponsored by an entity calling itself the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians, according to congressional disclosure reports. The trip for the Cuellars cost just south of $20,000 and was approved by the House Ethics Committee.
Kemal Oksuz, listed as Turquoise Council president, told the Ethics Committee that no foreign money paid for the trip, according to disclosures, but that claim is questionable given events that unfolded not long after.
In 2018, Oksuz pleaded guilty to concealing the fact that a separate congressional trip in May 2013 to Azerbaijan had been funded by a foreign government; he was sentenced in 2019. Oksuz had claimed that the trip in question was paid for by the Turquoise Council and the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan, both of which purport to promote regional and transnational cooperation. In truth, the trip was paid for by SOCAR, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, a wholly owned national oil and gas company.
Court documents show that Oksuz wired $750,000 from SOCAR in order to organize travel for 10 House members and their staff to Azerbaijan. (Cuellar did not go on this second trip.) Prior to this deposit, the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan, one of the nonprofits involved in the travel scheme, had only $283.15 in its checking account.
The Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan was founded shortly after Cuellar’s January trip, but Oksuz served as head of both, and as the Office of Congressional Ethics later reported, “Records suggest that this individual used the entities interchangeably.” And Cuellar’s itinerary for the January 2013 trip, on file with the Ethics Committee, shows a “briefing” at SOCAR and, later that evening, “dinner with SOCAR Executive Team.”
The relationship bore fruit. In July 2013, Cuellar spoke at a Washington, D.C., reception in honor of SOCAR, along with its president, Rovnag Abdullayev, to highlight the importance of a pipeline to deliver natural gas to Europe.
That pipeline and related projects are pivotal to the national interests of Azerbaijan. SOCAR is the largest company and source of tax revenue in Azerbaijan. The company has embarked on ambitious plans to expand its international footprint, including a network of pipelines that stretch through multiple countries to deliver gas into Europe. The so-called Southern Gas Corridor, built by SOCAR in partnership with BP and other Western energy giants, required an investment of over $45 billion.
Later that year, in September 2013, Cuellar and other lawmakers sponsored a resolution in Congress expressing support for Azerbaijan’s Southern Gas Corridor project, stating that it was in the “U.S. national interest” to support construction and work closely with the governments of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and others in the region to have the pipeline completed. The resolution was adopted by the House Foreign Affairs Committee by unanimous consent. In 2020, a portion of the pipeline across the Adriatic Sea began commercial operations to deliver gas from Azerbaijan to Italy.
“My thanks to Congressman Cuellar for his playing a very instrumental role for this affiliation.”
In April 2015, Cuellar announced an affiliation agreement between Texas A&M International University and the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan, described in a Cuellar press release as an “educational and cultural organization” — but which we now know, by Oksuz’s admittance, was a front for the Azerbaijan oil company.
“My thanks to Congressman Cuellar for his playing a very instrumental role for this affiliation,” Oksuz is quoted saying in Cuellar’s press release. “He is the cause of this TAMIU-AFAZ Affiliation Agreement. This agreement will give a very ample opportunity to TAMIU faculty and students not only they will study international energy law, politics of energy, environmental impacts and strategy management, but also they will meet and network with people from public and private sectors.”
In May 2015, the Office of Congressional Ethics published a report detailing the funding violation orchestrated by Oksuz. The FBI began probing too. In announcing his eventual guilty plea, the Department of Justice said that Oksuz had laid bare the scheme:
According to admissions made in connection with his guilty plea, Oksuz lied on disclosure forms filed with the Ethics Committee prior to, and following, a privately sponsored Congressional trip to Azerbaijan. Oksuz falsely represented and certified on required disclosure forms that the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasions (TCAE), the Houston non-profit for which Oksuz was president, had not accepted funding for the Congressional trip from any outside sources. Oksuz admitted to, in truth, orchestrating a scheme to funnel money to fund the trip from the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), the wholly state-owned national oil and gas company of Azerbaijan, and then concealed the true source of funding, which violated House travel regulations.
Oksuz was also a campaign donor to Cuellar, records show. The Cuellar campaign received $1,000 from Oksuz in June 2012 and another $2,500 in February 2015.
Cuellar, a co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, continued to promote Azerbaijan’s interests. Following the devastating Armenia-Azerbaijan War in 2020, fought over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, Cuellar petitioned his congressional colleagues to ensure that any humanitarian aid for the conflict would be “provided through the Government of Azerbaijan or U.N. organizations” and not given directly to Armenia.
A letter making the funding request, signed by Cuellar, was circulated by the BGR Group, a lobbying firm that represents the Azerbaijani Embassy, according to records on file with the Department of Justice.
Azerbaijan has been caught up in repeated scandals around the world in which it has been probed for attempting to bribe legislators. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe released a report in 2018 saying that its former members had engaged in “corruptive activities” with the Azerbaijan government. The German Bundestag last year also backed a corruption probe, according to Transparency International, after “the Azerbaijani Laundromat investigation showed how a network of slush funds financed such ‘caviar diplomacy’ through opaque payments to politicians across Europe.”
The gifts and payments to European policymakers were made in part to shape support for the same Azerbaijani oil and gas interests that had financed the 2013 congressional junket. “Azerbaijan is particularly keen to present a positive image in Europe because it needs significant European support for its flagship project — the Southern Gas Corridor — despite the regime’s serial human rights abuses, systemic corruption and election rigging,” noted a group of human rights watchdogs, including Platform and Bank Watch, commenting on the scandal.
Cuellar faces a serious challenge from human rights lawyer Jessica Cisneros in a March 1 Democratic primary. Cuellar did not respond to a request for comment.
Dr. Jamie Lee Henry, an internist at Fort Bragg, and Dr. Anna Gabrielian gave confidential medical records to an undercover F.B.I. agent who posed as a Russian agent, prosecutors said.
A Maryland doctor and her spouse, a U.S. Army doctor, were arrested on Thursday and charged with plotting to give the Russian government medical records of members of the American military, believing that the information could be exploited by the Kremlin, federal prosecutors said.
The couple, Dr. Anna Gabrielian, a Baltimore anesthesiologist, and Dr. Jamie Lee Henry, an Army major and staff internist at Fort Bragg, were indicted after they met several times with an undercover F.B.I. agent who they believed was working for the Russian Embassy, prosecutors said.
At a hotel in Baltimore on Aug. 17, Dr. Gabrielian told the agent she was “motivated by patriotism toward Russia to provide any assistance she could to Russia, even if it meant being fired or going to jail,” the indictment stated.
Dr. Henry told the agent that, “My point of view is until the United States actually declares war against Russia, I’m able to help as much as I want. At that point, I’ll have some ethical issues I have to work through,” the indictment stated.
Dr. Gabrielian replied, “You’ll work through those ethical issues,” according to the indictment.
Dr. Gabrielian told the agent that she had instructed her spouse to read “Inside the Aquarium: The Making of a Top Soviet Spy,” a book about the recruitment and training of a Soviet intelligence officer, which she said described the “mentality of sacrificing everything,” according to the indictment.
At a meeting with the agent on Aug. 24, Dr. Gabrielian called her spouse a “coward” who was concerned about violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA, which governs the privacy of a patient’s health records, the indictment stated. Dr. Gabrielian told the agent that she violated the law “all the time,” according to the indictment.
A week later, at a hotel in Gaithersburg, Md., Dr. Gabrielian gave the agent medical information on the spouse of an employee of the Office of Naval Intelligence, and highlighted an issue in the records that “Russia could exploit,” as well as the medical records of an Air Force veteran, the indictment stated.
Dr. Henry gave the agent the medical records of at least five patients at Fort Bragg, including a retired Army officer, a Defense Department employee and the spouse of an Army veteran, the indictment stated.
Dr. Gabrielian, 36, was charged in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland with one count of conspiracy and two counts of wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information.
Dr. Henry, 39, was charged with one count of conspiracy and five counts of wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information. Conspiracy is punishable by up to five years in prison and each count relating to the disclosure of medical records is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
David Walsh-Little, a lawyer for Dr. Henry, declined to comment on the charges on Thursday. Teresa Whalen, a lawyer for Dr. Gabrielian, did not immediately respond to an email and a phone message.
The indictment did not disclose where Dr. Gabrielian works, although the Maryland Board of Physicians lists Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore as her primary practice setting.
“We were shocked to learn about this news this morning and intend to fully cooperate with investigators,” Kim Hoppe, a spokeswoman for Johns Hopkins Medicine, said in a statement.
An Army spokesman referred questions about the case to the Justice Department, but confirmed that Dr. Henry entered active duty service in May 2007, is currently assigned to Fort Bragg as a staff internist and has no combat deployments.
During the Aug. 17 meeting at the Baltimore hotel, Dr. Henry told the agent of an interest in joining the Russian Army after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, but Russia wanted people with “combat experience” and the doctor did not have any, the indictment stated.
“The way I am viewing what is going on in Ukraine now is that the United States is using Ukrainians as a proxy for their own hatred toward Russia,” Dr. Henry told the agent, according to the indictment.
Dr. Gabrielian told the agent on Aug. 17 that she had previously reached out to the Russian Embassy by email and phone, offering Russia her and her spouse’s assistance, according to the indictment.
Dr. Gabrielian, describing how she and Dr. Henry could help Russia, suggested that their access to medical records should not be wasted on trivial matters, the indictment stated.
“It has to be something massively important,” she told the undercover agent, according to the indictment, “not just check if this person has polyps.”
Remember how I’ve been pointing out for years that the New York Times news section often buries the most interesting facts in the second half of an article? Well, today’s Russian spy story doesn’t even mention the most interesting aspect of this story:
Army Doctor and Spouse Plotted to Give Russia Medical Records, U.S. Says
Dr. Jamie Lee Henry, an internist at Fort Bragg, and Dr. Anna Gabrielian gave confidential medical records to an undercover F.B.I. agent who posed as a Russian agent, prosecutors said.
By Michael Levenson
Sept. 29, 2022, 5:42 p.m. ETA Maryland doctor and her spouse, a U.S. Army doctor, were arrested on Thursday and charged with plotting to give the Russian government medical records of members of the American military, believing that the information could be exploited by the Kremlin, federal prosecutors said.
The couple, Dr. Anna Gabrielian, a Baltimore anesthesiologist, and Dr. Jamie Lee Henry, an Army major and staff internist at Fort Bragg, were indicted after they met several times with an undercover F.B.I. agent who they believed was working for the Russian Embassy, prosecutors said.
At a hotel in Baltimore on Aug. 17, Dr. Gabrielian told the agent she was “motivated by patriotism toward Russia to provide any assistance she could to Russia, even if it meant being fired or going to jail,” the indictment stated.
Dr. Henry told the agent that, “My point of view is until the United States actually declares war against Russia, I’m able to help as much as I want. At that point, I’ll have some ethical issues I have to work through,” the indictment stated. …
A week later, at a hotel in Gaithersburg, Md., Dr. Gabrielian gave the agent medical information on the spouse of an employee of the Office of Naval Intelligence, and highlighted an issue in the records that “Russia could exploit,” as well as the medical records of an Air Force veteran, the indictment stated.
Dr. Henry gave the agent the medical records of at least five patients at Fort Bragg, including a retired Army officer, a Defense Department employee and the spouse of an Army veteran, the indictment stated. …
An Army spokesman referred questions about the case to the Justice Department, but confirmed that Dr. Henry entered active duty service in May 2007, is currently assigned to Fort Bragg as a staff internist and has no combat deployments.
During the Aug. 17 meeting at the Baltimore hotel, Dr. Henry told the agent that he looked into joining the Russian Army after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, but Russia wanted people with “combat experience” and he did not have any, the indictment stated. [Bold added by me.]
This is the first use of a pronoun for Dr. Henry.
And that’s more or less it for the article which dribbles on a little longer without mentioning that Dr. Henry has been a public figure for seven years, much less why.
And here’s the only photo illustrating the NYT article, a stock footage shot of something or other at Fort Bragg:
In contrast, from the Daily Mail:
Major Jamie Lee Henry, the Army’s first trans officer, and Dr. Anna Gabrielian were indicted for trying to give secret records to the Russian government …
By RONNY REYES FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 11:54 EDT, 29 September 2022 | UPDATED: 15:58 EDT, 29 September 2022
And here’s one of the Daily Mail’s photos of the pathbreaking Dr. Henry.
Unlike the New York Times, the Daily Mail uses “her” as Dr. Henry’s pronoun. Isn’t that a no-no at the NYT? But I guess being transphobic with pronouns is better than disturbing the serene worldview of NYT subscribers by informing them that one of these alleged traitors for Russia is a sacred transwoman.
The First Out Transgender Active-Duty U.S. Army Officer: “My Story Is Not Unique”
Last month, the Army granted the request of Jamie Lee Henry, a military doctor, to officially change her name and gender. “People say, ‘Is this a choice?’ The choice is being healthy or sick. I can continue living a sick life, or I can live a healthy life.”Chris Geidner
BuzzFeed News ReporterPosted on June 8, 2015 at 7:47 pm
Entrapment is a complete defense to a criminal charge, on the theory that "Government agents may not originate a criminal design, implant in an innocent person's mind the disposition to commit a criminal act, and then induce commission of the crime so that the Government may prosecute." Jacobson v. United States, 503 U.S. 540, 548 (1992). A valid entrapment defense has two related elements: (1) government inducement of the crime, and (2) the defendant's lack of predisposition to engage in the criminal conduct. Mathews v. United States, 485 U.S. 58, 63 (1988). Of the two elements, predisposition is by far the more important.
Inducement is the threshold issue in the entrapment defense. Mere solicitation to commit a crime is not inducement. Sorrells v. United States, 287 U.S. 435, 451 (1932). Nor does the government's use of artifice, stratagem, pretense, or deceit establish inducement. Id. at 441. Rather, inducement requires a showing of at least persuasion or mild coercion, United States v. Nations, 764 F.2d 1073, 1080 (5th Cir. 1985); pleas based on need, sympathy, or friendship, ibid.; or extraordinary promises of the sort "that would blind the ordinary person to his legal duties," United States v. Evans, 924 F.2d 714, 717 (7th Cir. 1991). See also United States v. Kelly, 748 F.2d 691, 698 (D.C. Cir. 1984) (inducement shown only if government's behavior was such that "a law-abiding citizen's will to obey the law could have been overborne"); United States v. Johnson, 872 F.2d 612, 620 (5th Cir. 1989) (inducement shown if government created "a substantial risk that an offense would be committed by a person other than one ready to commit it").
Even if inducement has been shown, a finding of predisposition is fatal to an entrapment defense. The predisposition inquiry focuses upon whether the defendant "was an unwary innocent or, instead, an unwary criminal who readily availed himself of the opportunity to perpetrate the crime." Mathews, 485 U.S. at 63. Thus, predisposition should not be confused with intent or mens rea: a person may have the requisite intent to commit the crime, yet be entrapped. Also, predisposition may exist even in the absence of prior criminal involvement: "the ready commission of the criminal act," such as where a defendant promptly accepts an undercover agent's offer of an opportunity to buy or sell drugs, may itself establish predisposition. Jacobson, 503 U.S. at 550.
[cited in JM 9-18.000]
By CBS Baltimore Staff
Updated on: June 14, 2023 / 6:20 PM / CBS Baltimore
BALTIMORE -- A retrial for Anna Gabrielian, a Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist, and her husband Jamie Lee Henry, an active duty major in the Army, has been scheduled for November 27, 2023.
The two doctors have been accused of sharing the private medical records of their patients with Russia. They claimed they were entrapped, according to court records.
Earlier this month, jurors announced that they could not unanimously agree on the guilt or innocence of two doctors.
There was a single holdout juror who believed the government entrapped the defendants and that lead Judge Stephanie Gallagher to declare a mistrial.
The entrapment issue came up because jurors were presented with five hours of video recorded by an undercover FBI agent. The videos were the basis of the government's case. The agent posed as a Russian government official and first confronted Gabrielian in a Johns Hopkins Hospital parking garage as she headed to work.
Gabrielian told the jury she feared for her life and the lives of her family both in Maryland and Russia if she refused to share confidential medical files with an undercover FBI agent who she thought was a member of Russian intelligence.
A letter to Judge Stephanie Gallagher from U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek Barron dated June 1 states that the U.S. government "is prepared to proceed to retrial against both defendants as soon as the court's schedule permits."
First published on June 2, 2023 / 6:44 PM
© 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
A Maryland anesthesiologist and her U.S. Army doctor spouse have been charged with trying to help Russia in its war against Ukraine with medical records that they thought Moscow could exploit, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland said Thursday.
The records never made it to Moscow. But they were given to an undercover FBI agent who received information about patients, including at least five at Fort Bragg, the U.S. Army base in North Carolina, federal authorities said.
One of the patients was married to an employee of the Office of Naval Intelligence, the federal indictment said. The undercover agent was told that the spouse had a medical issue that Russia could use to its advantage.
Federal authorities identified the anesthesiologist as Anna Gabrielian, 36, of Rockville, who works at an unidentified Baltimore medical facility. She is married to Jamie Lee Henry, 39, who was a U.S. Army major and internist at Fort Bragg.
Gabrielian and Henry each face charges of conspiracy and wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information.
The federal indictment does not describe what ties, if any, the couple has to Russia. But according to the indictment, Gabrielian told the agent she was “motivated by patriotism toward Russia to provide any assistance she could to Russia, even if it meant being fired or going to jail.”
The undercover agent posed as someone from the Russian embassy and first approached Gabrielian in August, the indictment said. During their first meeting, Gabrielian said she had previously contacted the Russian Embassy by email and phone to offer her and Henry’s assistance.
According to the indictment, Gabrielian said Henry could provide information regarding how the U.S. military establishes hospitals in war conditions as well as information about previous training the U.S. provided to Ukraine.
Henry later met with the agent and claimed to have volunteered to join the Russian military after the invasion but was told the Russians only wanted people with combat experience, the indictment stated. Henry also said the U.S. was using “Ukrainians as a proxy for their own hatred toward Russia.”
“My point of view is until the United States actually declares war against Russia, I’m able to help as much as I want,” the indictment quoted Henry as saying. “At that point, I’ll have some ethical issues I have to work through.”
Gabrielian allegedly told the agent that if she was at risk of arrest, she wanted her and Henry’s children to “have a nice flight to Turkey to go on vacation because I don’t want to end in jail here with my kids being hostages over my head.”
Court records do not list attorneys for Gabrielian or Henry, although federal officials said both were expected to appear in court on Thursday.
Each faces a total of up to 15 years in prison if convicted, although federal sentences are typically less than the maximum, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland said.
A former Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist and her spouse, an Army doctor — who are charged with providing sensitive medical information to an undercover FBI agent who they believed was a representative of the Russian government — are seeking to argue that they were entrapped, new court records show.
The trial of Anna Gabrielian and Jamie Lee Henry is slated for May 22. An undercover FBI agent who courted the couple is expected to appear under heavy security and in “light disguise,” federal prosecutors said in recent court papers.
A motions hearing will first be held Friday. Included in new fillings are transcribed comments of five meetings with the agent, which culminated with the Rockville pair providing medical information on two Hopkins patients and five who had received care at Fort Bragg, where Henry was stationed. Gabrielian and Henry were indicted in September on charges of conspiracy to wrongfully disclose individually identifiable health information.
A Johns Hopkins Hospital spokesperson said Gabrielian is no longer practicing but did not provide additional details on the circumstances of her departure.
In a new filing Wednesday, defense attorneys said they plan to argue that they were entrapped. Gabrielian had spotted the undercover agent’s hidden camera during the first meeting, they said, and it was “reasonable to infer” that she feared she was dealing with the KGB and was concerned about retaliation. Her acquiescence in providing medical records was an “attempt to placate” the agent, and they want to argue the couple was entrapped by the government, according to the filing.
Defense attorneys said the FBI was “searching for a crime two doctors would actually be in a position to commit” and persuaded them to “share a few random scraps of medical records related to two JHU patients and five patients treated at Fort Bragg (none active military).”
“That is inducement,” they wrote. “It is also entrapment as a matter of law.”
Prosecutors had sought to preempt an entrapment defense, arguing earlier that the conversations taped in hotel rooms in Baltimore and Gaithersburg should preclude the couple from making any such claims. They noted that Gabrielian had instructed Henry to read a book about Soviet spy recruitment so that Henry could understand “the mentality of sacrificing everything.”
“There is no evidence in the record to indicate any risk that the defendants were anything but ready and willing: the defendants were clearly predisposed to commit the crime that was of their own creation,” federal prosecutors Aaron S.J. Zelinsky and P. Michael Cunningham wrote. “The Defendants were acutely predisposed to commit the offense.”
A naturalized U.S. citizen from Russia, Gabrielian’s first outreach in early 2022 began “naively” with “innocuous” offers of help, her attorney said. It came five days after President Biden authorized sanctions against Russia after it invaded Ukraine.
The anesthesiologist had been spending extra hours helping a Ukrainian colleague at Johns Hopkins who was trying to supply Ukraine with medical assistances — including mobile ultrasounds to improve battlefield treatment, triage and anesthesia — and wanted to offer similar help to her native country.
In a message written in Russian to the country’s embassy in Washington, D.C., she said of herself and Henry: “We are ready to help if there is a need. We support life.”
Henry, a major who had a secret-level security clearance, is asking to be tried separately from Gabrielian, saying they had different motivations for meeting with the undercover agent. While she stated a desire to help Russia, Henry repeatedly made references to being against conflict and war.
“I want the world to be a better place for my kids,” Henry said at one point.
The undercover agent approached Gabrielian in August as she went into work in Baltimore, five months after she sent the emails. The undercover agent said yes when Gabrielian asked if she’d been sent by the embassy, according to court records.
They met in a Baltimore hotel room the next morning. Gabrielian reiterated a general desire to help, but said she wasn’t sure how. She noted she’d “thought about what to write and how to write it” when she’d reached out earlier in the year.
“How can I watch such injustice and do nothing,” she said.
“My job is to collect information and to pass it on,” the undercover agent said.
Gabrielian said she’d be willing to share protocols for different anesthesia. “Whatever we have at Hopkins, you have it too, if you want it,” she said, according to transcribed comments. She offered that Henry could help show how to set up a field hospital and pass along materials related to training programs.
She said she could access patient information, but it would be detected and she would be fired.
Henry joined for the second meeting, also in Baltimore.
“The purpose of me being here is not just to follow up on our communication, but to find friends, right, who can contribute in one way or another to the cause,” the undercover agent said. “And the cause is to not let the world to basically trample Russia and kind of take advantage of the situation where everybody united against.”
“We have more to lose than we do to gain from this. And it’s really my love of country that’s driving me,” Gabrielian said.
When speaking about motivation in a recorded conversation with the agent, Henry said it was “hate of war” and an interest in humanitarian aid, statements that attorney David Walsh-Little say “directly impeach the notion that Dr. Henry’s intention is to assist the government of Russia.”
“My experience having been in the military for 22 years, we instigate a lot. And we are very arrogant and what we think we know and what we can do with the tools that we have. You know, and it has hurt many, many people across the globe,” Henry said.
But prosecutors noted that Henry asked not to be told the undercover agent’s name, sought “plausible deniability,” and had been reading a book at Gabrielian’s request called “Inside the Aquarium: The Making of a Top Soviet Spy.”
“Henry was acting not just out of a ‘hate of war,’” prosecutors wrote. “Henry did not like things its [American] leadership had done, and the position its leadership had taken toward Russia in a variety of different administrations of both parties.”
Attorneys for both defendants are asking that a “political diatribe” from Henry be kept out of the trial.
Henry was recorded saying the U.S. was using Ukraine as “a proxy for their own hatred towards Russia” “because Hillary Clinton lost in 2016.” President Barack Obama, Henry said, was “offended by Putin because Obama is an effeminate man, and he’s intimidated by the values that Putin has just as many Americans are offended by Trump in the way that he presents himself. And I think it’s personality-driven partly, and a lot of people are dying as a result of people’s arrogance and personality, you know.”
Henry also spoke to the undercover agent about “many, many weaknesses of military medicine in the United States,” including a central location that runs the network for the military health care system.
At an Aug. 31 meeting at a hotel room in Gaithersburg, Gabrielian provided health information related to the spouse of an employee at the Office of Naval Intelligence, and a member of the U.S. Air Force.
“Gabrielian highlighted to the UC a medical issue reflected in the records ... that Russia could exploit,” prosecutors wrote. Henry then provided medical information related to at least five people who had been patients at Fort Bragg.
The defense says Gabrielian expressed fears of the agent going to jail and that the U.S. government might be following them.
“Defendants knew that the [agent] had filmed Dr. Gabrielian and lied about it,” the defense wrote Wednesday. “Knowing that, fearing that they could go to jail for turning over meaningless medical records, why did Defendants give in to the [agent’s] inducement? Why would anyone?”
The undercover agent continues to work in such a capacity, and a number of restrictions will be put in place if she is called to testify. She’ll testify under a pseudonym and use a “light disguise,” and the courtroom will be closed to only trial participants such as the judge, jury, defendants, prosecutors and other essential personnel, with an audio feed broadcast for the public in a separate room.
“Although there are no specific threats against the UCE, there is a legitimate risk that individuals associated with the Russian Government are actively seeking to identify law enforcement officers and share that information with others,” prosecutors wrote.
The trial of Anna Gabrielian and Jamie Lee Henry is slated for May 22, with an undercover FBI agent who courted the couple appearing under heavy security and in "light disguise," federal prosecutors said in recent court papers.
By Mike Hellgren
Updated on: June 1, 2023 / 11:52 AM / CBS Baltimore
BALTIMORE -- Jurors are divided in the trial of two Maryland doctors accused of providing patients' private medical information to Russia.
They told the jury late Wednesday, after a full day of deliberations, "We are unable to come to a unanimous verdict. How can we move forward?" The jury is divided on whether the government entrapped the defendants and told the judge hours earlier they were split 11-to-1. They did not say which way they were leaning. If the jury finds the defendants were entrapped, the verdict would be not guilty across the board.
The judge said she was concerned about jurors' ability to come to an agreement but said she would bring them back to the courthouse in the morning to see if they could reach a verdict.
NEW: note form jury: “We are unable to come to a unanimous verdict. How can we move forward?” Judge will release jurors for the night and bring them back tomorrow morning to see if they are deadlocked. @wjz
— Mike Hellgren (@HellgrenWJZ) May 31, 2023
If not, she could declare a mistrial or read what is known as an Allen Charge, a supplemental jury instruction designed as a last-ditch attempt to get a verdict.
Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist Dr. Anna Gabrielian faces up to 25 years in prison. Her husband, Dr. Jamie Lee Henry, who remains on active duty in the army, faces up to 65 years.
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Shortly after noon, jurors had two questions for the judge.
They wanted clarification on the definition of entrapment. The judge instructed the jurors the defendants had to be willing and ready to commit the crime before being approached by the government agent. @wjz
— Mike Hellgren (@HellgrenWJZ) May 31, 2023
They wanted to know if the defendants had to have malicious intent and gain something personally as motives to find them guilty of illegally providing the medical records.
The judge said one reason would be sufficient, but their decision had to be unanimous.
The government must prove either malicious intent or personal gain to win their case.
Jurors also wanted clarification on the definition of entrapment. The judge instructed them that the defendants had to be "ready and willing" to commit the crime before a government agent approached them.
The key evidence against the doctors is five hours of video from an undercover FBI agent posing as a representative of the Russian government—allegedly showing Gabrielian and Henry handing over notes and information on eight patients with ties to the military.
The defendants said they only wanted to help save lives in the brutal war with Ukraine and alleged the government misunderstood their motives and entrapped them. They claimed they only provided the confidential records because they feared Russian intelligence would harm them or their families.
Dr. Grabrielian told the undercover agent in video played during the trial that if she were caught, she wanted the couple's two young children to "have a nice flight to Turkey to go on vacation because I don't want to end up in jail here with my kids being hostages over my head."
WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren came to WJZ in the spring of 2004. Solid reporting credentials and a reputation for breaking important news stories have characterized Mike's work. Mike holds a B.S. degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and grew up partly in both Chicago and Louisiana.
First published on May 31, 2023 / 2:34 PM
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