Federal prosecutors will retry a pair of Maryland doctors who they accused of conspiring to assist Russia shortly after it invaded Ukraine, according to a court filing hours after a mistrial was declared in the case Thursday.
“The government is prepared to proceed to retrial against both defendants as soon as the Court’s schedule permits,” assistant U.S. attorneys Aaron Zelinsky and P. Michael Cunningham wrote in a one-page letter Thursday to U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher.
Hours earlier, Gallagher had declared a mistrial in the case against Dr. Anna Gabrielian and Dr. Jamie Lee Henry, citing deadlock in the jury’s deliberation after two days.
Gabrielian, a former Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist, and Henry, a major and physician in the Army, are still charged with conspiring to aid Russia and with providing the health information of several patients. Added together, the offenses carry maximum penalties of decades in prison.
Henry’s attorney declined to comment Friday afternoon. Gabrielian’s could not be reached for comment.
The doctors, who are married, were indicted last September following a months-long investigation by the FBI and the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Gabrielian, an American citizen who was born in Russia, emailed the Russian embassy five days after the war broke out on Feb. 24, 2022, identifying her and Henry as doctors and offering to help.
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“We are ready to help if there is a need for that,” she wrote. “We are for life, and do not want to cut Russia off from the international community.”
An undercover FBI agent approached Gabrielian outside of a Hopkins Hospital garage last August, calling to her in Russian.
The agent was posing as a Russian government official, and would go on to meet with Gabrielian four more times, at least twice with Henry present. During one of those meetings, the doctors, at the agent’s request, provided medical records of eight of their patients.
In doing so, they violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which protects patient privacy. Prosecutors charged them with felony violations of that federal law, saying they disclosed the records for personal gain or with the intention of causing “malicious harm” to America.
Gabrielian testified during the trial, admitting she knew she broke the law, but meant no harm. She also said she believed the undercover agent was a Russian intelligence official and that she was afraid of retribution against her family members, some of whom live in Ukraine and Russia, had she not complied with the agent’s request to produce records.
Defense attorneys for Gabrielian and Henry said the government coerced them to commit the crimes, raising an entrapment defense.
One juror believed the government entrapped the couple, and the jury was unable to move past that in their deliberations, leading to the deadlock.