Lawyers for Bijan Rafiekian, the ex-business partner of former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn, said Thursday they want to delay the upcoming February criminal trial into whether their client covertly lobbied for Turkey.
During a hearing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Rafiekian's attorney, Robert Trout, said he needs more time to review evidence turned over on Thursday morning, and plans to ask the judge to move the trial from Feb. 11 to sometime in September.
Rafiekian, a former U.S. Export-Import Bank director and co-founder of the consultancy firm Flynn Intel Group, is facing charges that he covertly lobbied for Turkey to discredit and extradite Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen from the United States to Turkey.