EXCLUSIVE: Aide to Harry Reid Lied to Feds, Submitted False Documents About Sham Marriage
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/25/exclusive-aide-to-harry-reid-lied-to-feds-submitted-false-documents-about-sham-marriage/Published October 25, 2010
An aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid repeatedly lied to federal immigration and FBI agents and submittedfalse federal documents to the Department of Homeland Security to coverup her illegal seven-year marriage to a Lebanese national who was thesubject of an Oklahoma City Joint Terror Task Force investigation,FoxNews.com has learned.
Diana Tejada, Reid’s Hispanic Press Secretary, admitted to receiving payment for “some of her expenses” inexchange for fraudulently marrying Bassam Mahmoud Tarhini in 2003,strictly so he could obtain permanent U.S. residency, according to courtdocuments.
Tarhini, now 37, was held in jail and at an immigration detention center in connection with his 2009 indictment onfelony charges, documents show. He pleaded guilty to entering afraudulent marriage to evade immigration laws — a Class D felony — inNovember 2009, and he was deported in March 2010.
Tejada, now 28, was never charged for her role in the crime.
“We did not charge the woman, and of course we don’t discuss the reasons we don’t charge people,” said Bob Troester,spokesman for the Western District of Oklahoma U.S. Attorney’s Office,which prosecuted the case, which began as an FBI investigation out ofthe Oklahoma City Joint Terrorism Task Force.
“There’s multiple factors that go into charging decisions. She wasn’t charged and we can’t go beyond that.”
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement would not comment on why it took five years to investigate the couple's marriage.
As recently as five weeks ago, on Sept. 21, 2010, Tejada appeared as a guest on a Spanish-language radio program inher official capacity as a spokeswoman for Harry Reid.
Monday evening, Reid’s spokesman Jim Manley said Tejada was no longer employed by Reid’s office. When asked whenTejada left Reid’s services, the spokesman had no comment.
Manley provided this statement to FoxNews.com:
“Our office was not previously aware of these allegations and, following an internal investigation, the stafferat issue is no longer with our office. The conduct alleged, which tookplace several years before the staffer worked for Senator Reid, wasclearly wrong. But the bottom line remains that this story was adesperation measure by partisan Republicans, who have stooped toslinging mud about junior staffers to score points in the waning days ofher campaign.”
In court documents, Tejada, who was also the Press Secretary of Hispanic Media for the Senate Majority ConferenceCommittee, is referred to as “an uncharged coconspirator in the crime ofperjury, filing false immigration documents, the crime of shammarriage.”
According to interviews and court records obtained by FoxNews.com, Tejada knowingly filed false documents with theDepartment of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizen and ImmigrationServices; lied in in-person interviews with ICE and FBI agents; andsubmitted fraudulent visa application affidavits and marriage licensedocuments — all in attempt to use her status as an American citizen toget Tarhini permanent residency.
As a result of her actions, according to court documents, Tarhini was able to obtain a work permit.
“I don’t honestly know the reason why they chose to prosecute Bassam and not her,” said Jeffrey Byers, Tarhini’scriminal attorney.
“I don’t think they could’ve prosecuted the case without one of the two of them saying something, but I suspect theychose to work with the American citizen other than Bassam.”
A Justice Department source familiar with the investigation said:
"As exhibited in the court documents, the case prosecuted by the U.S.Attorney's office in Oklahoma City was a straightforward case involvingtwo individuals who entered into a fraudulent marriage during college inorder for one to evade immigration laws and obtain lawful residence."
Tarhini entered the U.S. in 2000 on a student visa to attend Oklahoma City University, where Tejada was also astudent. They became friends and married in September 2003 so he couldavoid compulsory service in the Lebanese National Army, Tejada latertold officials. She was 21 years old at the time; he was 30.
Click here to see a copy of Tejada and Tarhini's marriage certificate.
Two months after their marriage, Tejada submitted an affidavit sponsoring Tarhini’s request for adjustment ofstatus, affirming on his I-485 application for a green card — underpenalty of perjury — that she was his wife.
Court records show that Tejada signed numerous affidavits fraudulently representing her marriage, includingforms documenting her financial and employment information along with asigned obligation to support Tarhini.
As part of the process, documents show, she and Tarhini attended an August 31, 2004, meeting at Citizenship andImmigration Services in Oklahoma City, where they misrepresented theirmarriage to immigration officials.
The next year, Tarhini stayed in Oklahoma while Tejada moved to Washington D.C., where she began working as aspokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza, court and publicrecords show.
In 2008, five years after he filed his visa application, Tarhini filed a suit against ICE officials to force adecision regarding the application — a strategy commonly employed whenvisa decisions appear to be taking an inordinate amount of time.
In 2008, sources with knowledge of the case told FoxNews.com, the FBI — working with the Oklahoma City JointTerrorism Task Force — sent what’s called a collateral request to ICE,asking them to track down Tejada to interview her about Tarhini.
At this point, Tarhini was a subject of interest in an Oklahoma JTTF investigation, sources said.
In May or June 2008, a source told FoxNews.com, Tejada was interviewed by ICE and FBI agents in Washington,and she maintained that her marriage was legitimate.
In October 2008, Tejada began working for Reid.
On Nov 3, 2008, ICE and FBI agents re-interviewed Tejada in Washington, according to documents andinterviews. This time, sources said, agents presented a slew ofevidence against her and Tarhini, and Tejada broke down and confessedthat her marriage was a lie, carried out to get Tarhini U.S. residency.
According to court records, she also told authorities that she and Tarhini had never dated nor consummated their marriage.
She told officials that she and Tarhini had discussed divorce, but they agreed to wait a while longer — untilDecember 2008 — to see if his visa would be approved, records state.
In the presence of the federal agents, Tejada withdrew her visa petition for Tarhini, stopping his applicationto become a permanent resident, and signed a sworn affidavit saying thatthe marriage was a sham.
Tejada, according to sources with knowledge of the meeting, expressed concern about her job and said she was worriedabout Reid's reaction to her sham marriage. The federal agents toldher she had an obligation to tell Reid, and sources said they believedshe would inform her boss.
The highest level of management inside the Department of Homeland Security was aware that she worked for Reid,multiple sources confirmed, and following protocol, the majority leadershould have been informed of the investigation through those channels,as well.
But in July 2009, when an ICE agent testifying at Tarhini’s preliminary deportation hearing was askedspecifically about Tejada’s employer, the agent did not say it was theU.S. Senate.
ICE Special Agent Rebecca Perkins: “Currently she is employed with the — a Hispanic center organization.”
Tarhini's Defense Counsel, Jeffrey Byers: “Is that La Raza? Does that sound familiar?"
Perkins: “I don’t know.”
Byers: “It’s a — it’s a — it's something that is a public service group for the Hispanic community. Isthat a fair statement, or something to that degree?”
Perkins: “Yes”
According to sources with knowledge of the November 2008 meeting, Tejada also told ICE and FBI agents that she wasconcerned about some of Tarhini’s associates, including the best man ather wedding, a Pakistani national named Amer Awli, whom she described as“very secretive.” Awli's current whereabouts are unknown.
Following Tarhini’s arrest in 2009, he was interviewed by FBI agents who sources say asked about his ties toextremists groups. Some sources said they determined he did not haveties to any terror group, but other sources close to the case said thatcould not be ruled out.
“Not all of my cases involve the FBI,” said Tarhini’s immigration attorney, Timothy Lee Cook. “Certainly, there wassomething out there that caught their attention.”
When asked what that might be, Cook said: “FBI’s not going to tell anybody that. And believe me, I asked.”
FBI spokesman Paul Bresson told FoxNews.com via email, “We have no comment.”
ICE provided details of Tarhini’s deportation but referred additional questions to the Western District ofOklahoma's U.S. Attorney's Office.
On March 20, 2009, Tarhini’s visa application for status as a lawful permanent resident was denied due tofraud and misrepresentation of his marriage to Tejada, court recordsstate.
That same day, Tarhini was administratively arrested by ICE "due to failure to maintain his non-immigrant studentstatus and fraudulent marriage," court records state. "He was no longerattending the Oklahoma City University, thus violating his immigrationstatus."
In August 2009 Tarhini was indicted on two felony charges: Entering into a marriage to evade immigration laws, andsubscribing to false statements. As part of a plea deal last November,he pleaded guilty to the first charge, and the second was dropped.
Tarhini was sentenced to time served and three years' supervised release. ICE spokeswoman Gillian Brighamconfirmed to FoxNews.com that Tarhini was “removed” from the U.S. onMarch 3, 2010.
Tejada made $52,451.60 last year working for Reid.
Last month Tejada spoke in her official capacity as Spokesperson, Office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,as a guest on a Spanish-language radio program’s immigration-themedspecial on the DREAM Act, which included a section in which the hostanswered listeners’ questions “about the do’s and don’ts of applying forresidency and naturalization.”
Tejada filed for divorce, “alleging incompatibility,” on March 16, 2010. The divorce was finalized on July 6.
Tejada did not return requests for comment on this article.
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