I hate to be put in the position of defending the prosecutor but she did not have to share the 14,000 emails with Cyndi. For G-d's sake, this is five full size books! This so called Russian bride scam was old news 20 years ago and was not worthy of Steele's time. Our country is coming apart at the seams and Steele has time to investigate Russian bride scams.
Even if it was a proper matter to pursue, 1,000 emails are more than sufficient to crack it wide open. How touching that he sent his sweetie photos of the ranch's new kittens. Why did Steele not notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI about his results? This is a "The dog ate my homework excuse." if there every was one.
I admire Cyndi for standing by her man. However, all of us here have been scammed from the start with the assertion that Steele was framed. He may well have been entrapped but it is clear that he was not framed. This is a fraud perpetrated upon those of us who gave money to the website and sent Steele money in jail.
Steele called his son in July to have him report the theft of his silver several months after the fact. That is a major felony and as an officer of the court he was required to report it at once. This is a failed attempt at CYA.
I have been told by a reliable source that he owns his ranch free and clear. My guess is that he is drawing $1,000 per month in social security. Why would he need money?I can't believe that he would be stupid enough to cash in his silver in the local area in a case like this. He should at least gone out of state to do so. Any cash transaction of $10,000 or more is reported to the IRS. That would be only require about 600 ounces worth at the time.
If Steele was in his right mind it might have been possible for the government to frame him. It would have been impossible for the government to entrap him in a case like this however. There is no doubt in my mind that mini-strokes from his aorta surgery left him crazier than a shit house rat. Turn him loose and give him to Cyndi so she can get him the care that he needs.
I also hate to be put in the position of going to bat for the scumbag Fairfax but that was not a real bomb on Cyndi's car. It was a one foot length of pipe with end caps and perhaps 2.5 pounds of smokeless powder. It was not drilled for a detonator and there was no means of igniting the powder. It was likely legal unless it was in interstate commerce. A stick of dynamite would not have set it off. That would merely have crushed it. The bomb squad are just trying to justify their salaries. Fortunately it was discovered which means that Fairfax rots in jail with Steele. He would have gotten a sweet heart deal if it hadn't been found.
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http://www.spokesman.com/stories/201...rprised-emails
April 29, 2011 in Idaho
Steele’s wife says she’s not surprised by emails
Meghann M. Cuniff The Spokesman-Review
BOISE – A North Idaho lawyer standing trial on federal charges that he hired a man to kill his wife sent more than 14,000 online messages to women he met through an online dating website before his arrest.
Edgar Steele’s wife, Cyndi Steele, told jurors in Boise on Friday that those messages were part of his research into the Russian mail-order bride business. Cyndi Steele knew, she said, that her husband had told one woman he was not in love with his wife and that he was looking for “a girl he couldn’t live without.”
Edgar Steele told 25-year-old Tatyana Loginova he had “produced the greatest children in the world, but I deserve more. I will never have another American woman, never again,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan said in U.S. District Court in Boise Friday. Loginova is expected to testify via video from Ukraine on Monday.
Steele’s lawyers, say the murder plot was really the work of Steele’s handyman, Larry Fairfax, who was arrested after authorities found a pipe bomb under Cyndi Steele’s car. Fairfax didn’t mention the bomb when he told the FBI about the plot and agreed to secretly record Steele.
Prosecutors contend Steele wanted his wife killed so he could be with Loginova.
The jury of 11 women and one man — two other women are alternates — saw emails between Steele and Loginova on Friday.
Whelan said she reviewed emails with Cyndi Steele last month to avoid surprising and embarrassing Steele at trial. But, Cyndi Steele said Friday, “I knew what they were before I went in…I wasn’t going to be embarrassed because I know about them.”
Whelan noted that Edgar Steele could have made up any identity and told the women anything to gain information. Instead, he described his life to Loginova, sent her pictures of his home and the family’s newborn kittens and even mentioned the couple’s son, Rex.
Cyndi Steele told jurors she wasn’t concerned. “He was setting up a ruse the same way the FBI agents did with my husband’s arrest,” she said, referring to that fact that before investigators arrested Steele on June 11, they told him his wife had been killed to gauge his reaction.
Under cross examination from defense lawyer Robert McAllister, Steele said she often helped her husband with the research and that he had traced the Russian bride scam to Florida.
Whelan said Edgar Steele viewed his wife’s dream — her horse farm — as “a symbol of wasted money.” Said Cyndi Steele, “He knew in reality it was not a money-maker, but he knew it was my dream and supported it.”
Whelan also focused on Cyndi Steele’s theft report of $45,000 in silver, which was made in September, more than two months after her husband’s arrest. At the time, Cyndi Steele said Fairfax was a suspect.
Whelan noted that Edgar Steele called his son, Rex, in July and asked him to report the theft, telling him that it was “very important.”
Fairfax has said he rigged the bomb under Cyndi Steele’s car so it wouldn’t explode, but bomb experts said Friday that the device still had that capability.
Sgt. Mike Kittilstved, head of the Spokane County bomb squad, called the device “the largest pipe bomb that I’ve dealt with.”
Fairfax has pleaded guilty to two firearms charges related to the bomb and is to be sentenced after Steele’s trial.