Booking pictures for Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein.
Courtesy: Alexandria Adult Detention Center.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., reset the times for Thursday’s plea hearings of the “Crypto Couple” implicated of attempting to wash $4.5 billion in taken bitcoin in anticipation of a scheduled look in the very same court house later on in the day by previous President Donald Trump, on a brand-new criminal indictment.
The order followed individuals had actually currently started lining up outside the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse, in the hope of getting a seat at Trump’s arraignment.
Trump was charged Tuesday on 4 felony counts associated to his efforts to reverse his loss in the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.
The previous president was summoned to appear in U.S. District Court in Washington at 4 p.m. ET Thursday prior to Magistrate Judge MoxilaUpadhyaya The Department of Justice anticipates him to be there face to face.
The bitcoin couple, Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather “Razzlekahn” Rhiannon Morgan, were currently due to appear in the very same court on the very same day for different plea hearings at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. respectively. Court filings last month recommended that they will plead guilty at those hearings.
But on Wednesday, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly moved Lichtenstein’s hearing to 9: 30 a.m. and his partner Morgan’s hearing to 11 a.m. Thursday.
The judge’s order stated the rescheduling was “due to exigent circumstances.”
People lined up outdoors E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday,Aug 2, 2023, for prepared arraignment of Donald Trump.
Ryan Reilly|NBC News
Lichtenstein and Morgan were detained in February 2022 on a criminal problem, implicated of attempting to wash 119,754 bitcoin taken in the 2016 hack of the cryptocurrency exchangeBitfinex They had actually pleaded innocent to the charges in that problem of cash laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Last month, district attorneys submitted a brand-new charging file versus the couple, with the very same criminal counts. That file, called a details, is regularly utilized by district attorneys when offenders have actually consented to plead guilty.
Morgan is totally free on a $3 million bond while Lichtenstein, a Russian emigré, has actually been kept in prison considering that his arrest without bail after being ruled a flight danger.
