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The years-long FBI investigation of a Belarusian woman accused of smuggling American aviation equipment and electronics into Russia is in danger of collapsing because of a simultaneous crackdown by the Trump administration. Tries to exile him.
Federal prosecutors spent more than a year trying to extradite Yana Leonova to the United States to face multiple criminal charges, including fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.
But immigration officer They suddenly issued an order for his detention and removal last month soon after he was brought into the country, surprising prosecutors, who a federal judge described as embroiled in another “Kafkaesque” case. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s massive mass deportation campaign,
“Indeed, it is both absurd and outrageous for the government to bring someone into the United States against their will and then come back and demand ICE custody because the person is here ‘illegally,’” Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui. Wrote last week.
“The government needs to decide what its priorities are: increasing deportation statistics or prosecuting alleged criminals,” he said.
Donald Trump’s administration intends to detain Leonova and begin deportation proceedings if she is released from pretrial detention, an arrangement that the judge questioned as to why the government would spend “countless resources” to bring her into the country “when the other hand would try to deport her without a second thought.”
But government lawyers are asking Homeland Security to grant him temporary legal authorization to remain in the country while he faces criminal charges unsealed last year. He was extradited from France to the United States in November.
That request is still pending.
“The government cannot afford to lag behind in addressing the flight risks that deportation proceedings are initiating,” Faruqui wrote last week. “In fact, there is an easy way to reduce this flight risk: Do not deport pending criminal prosecution.”
Leonova was arrested in September 2024 after arriving in France, where she spent several weeks in prison and almost a year under house arrest. He has been detained in a prison in Washington, DC, since his extradition to the United States last month.
A federal indictment According to prosecutors, the allegations are that Leonova “purchased and illegally exported” aviation equipment from the United States to Russia, where the items were used in private planes for her employer during Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Leonova and her co-conspirators allegedly purchased components from US-based distributors, then shipped the components to Russia through intermediary destinations without the Commerce Department’s knowledge or approval.
“The FBI has made preventing American technology from falling into the hands of our adversaries a top priority, and we ask all of our private sector partners to remember the vital role they play in protecting our national security by reporting the breach,” FBI Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division Roman Rozhavsky said in a statement at the time of the indictment.
“And for anyone considering helping an enemy nation-state obtain export-controlled technology, today’s charges serve as a warning: The FBI and our partners will find you, wherever you are, and bring you to justice,” he said.
Faruqi has called Leonov a “prime candidate for release” while awaiting trial, noting that he has no prior criminal record and an “exemplary record” of court-ordered conditions, including long-term home detention in France.
But if Leonova is moved to a court-approved home in New Jersey that a judge has found “credible,” immigration officials have suggested taking her into custody within 48 hours of her release. Washington PostWho first reported His case.
If that were the case, prosecutors would not only be fighting his case in federal court, but also seeking his release from immigration court, which operates under the direction of the Justice Department and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
If he is deported to his home country, federal prosecutors will have little chance of bringing him back to face criminal charges. Belarus and Russia do not have extradition agreements with the United States.
The case echoes a similar Byzantine saga kilmer abrego garciaJoe reluctantly agreed to return to the United States from a brutal prison in El Salvador, despite multiple court rulings ordering his return. He was immediately brought back to face newly initiated criminal charges, but Homeland Security is also trying to deport him before he faces trial.
Leonova’s case is also far from the only Trump-era immigration case to have been compared to a surreal Franz Kafka story by a judge.
earlier this yearA judge overseeing the release of dozens of Venezuelans from a Salvadoran prison similarly compared the legal battle to Kafka testsIn which the protagonist Joseph K is arrested and put on trial without knowing by whom and for what reason.
More than 60,000 people are in ICE custody across the country, a record high, as the Trump administration is on pace to deport more than 600,000 people from the country within the first year of the president’s second term.
High-profile operations in Democratic-led cities with large immigrant populations have led to an uptick in immigration arrests, immigrants skipping court hearings are being increasingly arrested, and a recent Supreme Court decision allowing federal agents to racially profile people suspected of being in the country illegally, paving the way for street-level sweeps.
Independent Homeland Security has been requested to comment.