After U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin C. Carlson ordered her release less than a week ago, prosecutors claim, Williams “instructed” alleged co-conspirators to do the same. The government is now requesting that the conditions of Williams’s release be altered to cut off her internet access and allow investigators to monitor her compliance with that prohibition.
The revelations might keep Williams on a shorter leash awaiting trial since her transfer from the Middle District of Pennsylvania to the District of D.C., where U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui is presiding over her case.
Commenting on the “extremely troubling” allegations, Faruqui wondered why the government is not seeking Williams’s detention again. That question went unanswered before the hearing abruptly ended because of a defense counsel’s scheduling conflict.
In an alarming court documents, the FBI quoted a witness alleging that Williams intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service.
“According to W-1, the transfer of the computer device to Russia fell through for unknown reasons and Williams still has the computer device or destroyed it,” the FBI wrote in an affidavit, referring to “Witness-1.”