Trial starts for odd couple who (allegedly) offered private medical information on US soldiers to Russia

Last year we learned about an odd couple in Maryland who were indicted on charges of offering private medical information to Russia. Jamie Lee Henry was a doctor in the Army Medical Corp who, in 2015, became the US Army’s first trans officer. He was greeted by the media as a hero at the time.

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In holding an interview with BuzzFeed News, Henry is the first known active-duty Army officer to come out as transgender. She also is, to her knowledge and to the knowledge of LGBT advocates, the first and only active duty service member who has changed her name and gender within the United States military…

“People say, ‘Is this a choice?’ The choice is being healthy or sick. I can continue living a sick life, or I can live a healthy life,” she said simply, declaring that she has chosen health.

Henry’s wife is Dr. Anna Gabrielian, an anesthesiologist at Johns Hopkins. Together they decided they wanted to betray their country and help the Russian war effort by offering to hand over private medical information on US soldiers and government figures. They reached out to Russia and got a response from someone who claimed to be working for the Russian embassy. In fact, he was an undercover FBI agent. They all met together in a Baltimore hotel room last August.

At about 8:10 p.m. that evening, the indictment alleges that Gabrielian and Henry met with the UC in the UC’s hotel room. During the meeting, Henry explained to the UC he was committed to assisting Russia and had looked into volunteering to join the Russian Army after the conflict in Ukraine began, but Russia wanted people with “combat experience” and he did not have any. Henry further stated, “the way I am viewing what is going on in Ukraine now, is that the United States is using Ukrainians as a proxy for their own hatred toward Russia.” Henry and Gabrielian allegedly offered to provide the UC with private medical records from the United States Army and [Johns Hopkins] in order to help the Russian government. During the same meeting, Gabrielian demanded that if she were put at significant risk of arrest, she wanted her and Henry’s children to, “have a nice flight to Turkey to go on vacation because I don’t want to end in jail here with my kids being hostages over my head.” Henry also indicated that he was concerned about passing a background check for his security clearance, telling the UC, “I don’t want to know your name . . . because I want plausible deniability too. In a security clearance situation they want to know names and people and all this stuff.”

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At a subsequent meeting a couple of weeks later, Henry and Gabrielian did provide the undercover agent with medical information on seven people including one who was working for the Office of Naval Intelligence. This particular individual had some kind of medical condition which Henry told the agent could be exploited.

Today was the start of the trial for the odd couple and it sounds like most of the facts in the case are on video.

The first witness was called — an undercover FBI agent. During her testimony, the government played tapes she recorded of her meetings with the co-defendants, and the jury saw Gabrielian say, “it’s painful” to fake “wanting to help Ukrainian soldiers” because “every Ukrainian solder’s life that’s saved is a Russian solder that is killed.”

Henry said he’s motivated to help Russia “because of my hatred of war … and the United States.” Then Henry offered to share “every weakness in the military’s medical system.”…

Both sides of this federal criminal case agree on the who, where, when and how of the case. But they disagree on why the alleged crimes occurred. According to the federal government, testimony and evidence will prove that “humanitarian aid” is nothing more than a cover story that the defendants came up with to conceal espionage.

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The defense view of the evidence is that the couple are merely pacifists who were somehow trying to provide humanitarian aid or something. I hope there’s no one dumb enough to believe that story on the jury.

But I feel like the trans part of this story has been completely dropped without comment. When did Jamie Lee Henry detransition? Or is he just dressing like a man for the trial? That’s him on the right, sans makeup and sporting a beard.

How can this guy be a heroic trans woman pioneer eight years ago and now that he’s on trial for giving information to the Russians (and admitting he hates the Unites States) its not even mentioned anymore.

The trial resumes tomorrow with more FBI testimony and more recordings of the defendants. Here’s a local news report on the trial.

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