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Edgar Steele told a 25-year-old Ukrainian woman after his arrest on murder-for-hire charges that the Anti-Defamation League had manufactured a recording of him plotting to kill his wife using a collection of secret recordings by Larry Fairfax and thousands of hours of online audio files.
Steele wrote in a letter to Tatyana Loginova that the case against him began when Fairfax stole $45,000 in silver, though prosecutors have shown jurors that Steele cashed in about that same amount of silver a couple months before his arrest.
“This has been a huge shock to me but not really a surprise; they have been after me for a long time because of my outspoken criticism” of the federal government and U.S. power brokers, Steele wrote Loginova.
FBI Special Agent Brent Smith, who is based in the Ukraine, read from the letter this morning in U.S. District Court in Boise, the fourth day of testimony in Steele's murder-for-hire trial.
Smith helped with Loginova's deposition in the Ukraine. Loginova declined to travel to the United States to testify, and because she is not a U.S. citizen, she could not be forced to appear.
In a deposition taped in early March, Loginova, through a translator, said she met Steele through an online dating website, exchanged emails and learned about his personal life.
“Did he ever tell you if he had kids?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan asked.
“Yes, he did. They told me that they don't live with him though. He told me that he lives alone,” Loginova said through a translator.
Steele wrote that Loginova could find work, “take care of our babies, make love to me, whatever would make you happy.”
He said he was trying to get his children to mail her a package with a teddy bear, map of the area and other gifts.
“I begin to suspect that my ex may be behind all of this,” Steele writes. “She knows that you are very special to me and I know that's why she has not sent your box as she promised me she would do.”
Loginova said Steele planned to visit Ukraine in August 2010.
She said the two began talking over Skype in May or early June.
Under cross examination, defense lawyer Gary Amendola emphasized that Loginova doesn't actually know if Steele is the one who wrote the letter.
Steele's wife, Cyndi Steele, testified last week that her husband was corresponding with Loginova and other women as part of his research into the Russian mail order bride scam.
The prosecution has rested. Judge Winmill has denied a defense motion to dismiss the charges against Steele.
The defense will begin presenting its case shortly. Steele's wife and daughter have attended each day of the trial. Hayden resident Deon Masker, wife of white supremacist Richard Masker, is at the trial for the first time today.
Reporter Meghann Cuniff writes about public safety news from the Inland Northwest and beyond.
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DoesntMakeSense on May 02 at 11:44 a.m.
If the government manufactured the tapes of conversations with Larry Fairfax (which audio experts say they did, although the judge is preventing them testifying), and if the government is really determined to take down Edgar Steele, then what is to have prevented them from forging all the e-mail exchanges, letters and skype conversations with the Ukrainian girl?
We know the Fairfax tapes are forged. Why is Larry Fairfax, who admitted to placing a pipe bomb which the prosecution admits was lethal and could have killed Cyndi Steele, getting out of jail this year? He is also writing a book about it and hopes to be on the Oprah Winfrey show by his own admission.
The defense had world-class autio experts analyze the Fairfax tapes, and they found 351 edits. But the judge says their testimony is irrelevant and could confuse the jury, so he won’t allow the defense to challenge the authenticity of the tapes.
BitinDawg on May 02 at 12:21 p.m.
I won’t pretend to know with any certainty whether Edgar Steele is guilty as charged. I do know that the Government has ample motive to cast aside integrity and mount a corrupt attack on this man.
We certainly don’t get a full and accurate report from this media. How were the letters to this woman authenticated? Whatever, I feel for the Steele children and Cindi.
etapravda on May 02 at 1:39 p.m.
Arguments that the government is fabricating evidence is akin to claiming that the holocaust never happened….this guy is guilty as guilty could be…even got caught witness tampering….unless the jury is a bunch of ignorant white supremacists….Steele is going to the pokey for the rest of his life…..
Tyllim on May 02 at 5:05 p.m.
Etapravda…seen one of your other comments and starting to see a correlation. You seem to be counting Steele’s guilt as fact and do that based entirely upon his past. Whether or not he is a racist should have nothing to do with this, his actual level of guilt at the moment is a lack there of since he is only currently charged. Have you seen all the evidence, or more particularly the context that it is in? If you could perhaps see and comment on specific observations from the trial and its proceedings then what you have to say would actually carry some weight. Anyways, the fact that the Defense’s experts were denied seems suspicious…if there is nothing to their testimony then shouldn’t matter, but to deny their testimony implies something is there…unless there is another reason that was left out.
hilariousisback on May 02 at 7:29 p.m.
Tyllim, yes! You are right! The government wanted Steele dead because he supported views from a group long disbanded and widely considered an afterthought by many in this nation! That is why they manufactured a case that isn’t even that solid to try to put away a guy whose own wife say he was sick and near death. Your comment is perhaps the most astute I have read thus far. Please keep it up.
Chompers on May 03 at 10:16 a.m.
Perhaps this writer’s commendation of Ms. Cuniff’s efforts to spin the story and run interference for the government and related agencies has only served to encourage her ceaseless campaign to “spot the politically incorrect and make them suffer”.
It’s not only Mr. Steele — having run afoul of “the powers that be” — now it’s those who attend his trial. Note her inclusion of “Hayden resident Deon Masker, wife of white supremacist Richard Masker, is at the trial for the first time today”.
Ms. Cuniff symbolically sewed the scarlet “Aryan Nations” to Mr. Steele’s chest. Now she sews a scarlet “White Supremacist” to the chest of Ms. Masker.
This is work that justifies a bonus added to the paycheck. It matters little that citizens who become identified as politically incorrect may have contributed to many others in a neutral or positive manner; all that matters is what is fashionable, what talks emotion and ignores truth, honesty, fact.
Clearly, the Media directs their staff to target certain causes and individuals with negative, detractive emphasis, when it fits their agenda. True hatred and intolerance lives not in the hearts of Mr. Steele or Ms. Masker. Such lives elsewhere.
Chompers on May 03 at 10:27 a.m.
etapravda: “… [claims the] government is fabricating evidence”? Yep, they sure are. Attentive 9th graders can see this.
“…. claiming that the holocaust never happened”? No matter how hard the powers that be try to elevate “The Holocaust (C)” to USA National religious dogma, the fact remains it did NOT happen as purported. Shoa business is completely irrelevant to this discussion.
“…the jury is a bunch of ignorant white supremacists”? In your book, if they exonerate Steele, they most certainly become such. If the Boise court is sufficiently corrupt, they’ll facilitate the jury reaching a “guilty” verdict, at which time you’ll likely change your tune about those ignorant White supremacist jurors and give them each the Presidential Medal Of Honor.
Tyllim on May 03 at 4:47 p.m.
I would like to clarify that my comment is not meant to indicate a level of belief in innocence or guilt. I do have a belief on the truth behind the trial, but as it stands I only wished to point out that people should take a more objective stand point and not count in merely the background/associations of people, the evidence should be taken independently and examined from a singular standpoint. Too many articles point out only Mr. Steele’s association to the Aryan Nations (He merely represented them as they were due the right of representation and himself proclaims no affiliation to their beliefs) and don’t mention or evaluate a single aspect of the evidence, precluding his guilt on his reputation. One has the right to their beliefs as long as they don’t bring physical harm to others, such is the way of the Constitution. If beliefs in certain ideologies immediately equated to violence, then fighting between zealots and militant groups everywhere would erupt, with people quickly taking sides and the structure of society collapsing. Obviously this has not occurred and life is not in black and white, there are a wide number of variations to take into account. I apologize if my meaning is unclear, I realize I got a little carried away.