Mysterious Witness in Ibragim Todashev Shooting Mysteriously Deported

Today in Boston at the trial of Whitey Bulger a former FBI agent who admitted taking payoffs from Bulger offered a tearful apology to the family of one of Bulger's alleged murder victims. Earlier former FBI Special Agent John Morris had testified that he had no direct involvement in the murder which must have been a source of great comfort to the family. By no direct involvement Morris meant he didn't pull the trigger he had only told fellow FBI agent John Connolly that Edward "Brian" Halloran had given authorities information about a murder Bulger's gang was suspected of committing. Prosecutors say Halloran and Michael Donahue - an innocent bystander who had offered Halloran a ride home - were killed in 1982 after Connolly leaked the information to Bulger. Bulger is accused of opening fire on the car as the two men left a Boston restaurant. To its credit the FBI has done a commendable job of keeping accounts of one of the worst cases of criminal corruption in its history from national scrutiny for decades.
This set me to wondering how the FBI's investigation of the shooting of the unarmed Ibragim Todashev was progressing since the FBI has also done a commendable job of keeping that story out of the media. Todashev, you will remember, was shot to death while being questioned by the FBI. It's seldom that I see things from the Council on American-Islamic Relations' point of view but this is one of those times. The FBI is still working diligently on its investigation and of course cannot comment publicly but it has, or someone else has, managed to get an immigration judge to order the deportation of a potential witness. In fact the witness may have already left the country.

Officials with the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Florida, which is conducting its own review of the shooting, said they wanted to talk to Gruzdeva about the FBI’s actions in the days and weeks leading to Todashev’s death. Council leaders are concerned that federal officials are sweeping her out of the country before she could provide information to them and law enforcement officials.

“We’re extremely interested in speaking to her and seeing what she has to say,” said Hassan Shibly, executive director of the council in Florida. “We’re very curious as to why the government’s put so many impediments, in trying to get her out of the country as soon as possible. There’s a very good likelihood that she has important information.”
The FBI has refused to release details of the May 22 shooting of Todashev and media reports have provided conflicting accounts. Some said he attacked the agent with a blade during an interrogation, while others reported that he was unarmed or that he had lunged at the agent with a metal pole or a broomstick. Todashev, according to the media reports, was about to sign a confession implicating himself and his friend, suspected Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who is now dead, in the 2011 slayings of three men in Waltham.

Federal immigration officials arrested Tatiana Igorevna Gruzdeva, a 19-year-old aspiring foreign language teacher from Russia, on May 16 for overstaying her visa. Her connection to Todashev is unclear because the judge ordered her to leave the country no later than July 1 and ordered her to remain in jail until her departure. Immigration court officials under the Department of Justice, the same agency that oversees the FBI, refused to disclose details about her case, citing their controversial privacy rules. One hopes the FBI can now wrap up this investigation and resume the stellar work it has been doing investigating the Benghazi raid and the IRS scandal.