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Ghislaine Maxwell- Case Archive
personpersonMichael William AznaranMichael William AznaranU.S. Customs and Border Protection officer assigned to the New York and New Jersey HIDTA task force.← All People
WitnessU.S. Customs and Border Protection

Michael William Aznaran

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer assigned to the New York and New Jersey HIDTA task force.

AppearedFederal Criminal Trial
217 lines·5 proceedings·1 mention

About

Michael William Aznaran, a Customs and Border Protection task-force officer called by the defense on Day 11, explained TECS and authenticated Defendant's Exhibit MA-1. The sealed and redacted exhibit contained TECS person-encounter reports for Jane, Kate, and Annie Farmer, and he described its fields and the earliest entries shown for each traveler.

On cross-examination, Aznaran agreed that international airlines had submitted passenger manifests to APIS voluntarily before 9/11. He said MA-1 could not be treated as a complete history of the travelers' international trips because older travel information could be absent.

On redirect, Aznaran explained that processing at an immigration kiosk or booth can update TECS with date, time, and site information. He confirmed that the listed Annie Farmer entries reflected border crossings rather than airline-manifest information alone. On recross, he said CBP used paper records in the 1990s and that he was unsure whether those records had been entered into its system before 9/11.

Trial Record (5)

FederalFederal Criminal TrialNov 29, 2021 – Dec 29, 2021Called by defense

Defense witness Michael William Aznaran, a Customs and Border Protection task-force officer, authenticated TECS travel reports and explained both their border-crossing data and their limits as a complete pre-9/11 travel history.

Day 11

DirectMichael William Aznaran — DirectMichael William AznaranChristian R. Everdell2highlights165lines spoken

Summary

CBP officer Michael William Aznaran authenticated sealed, redacted TECS travel reports for Jane, Kate, and Annie Farmer and explained how the records were created.

Highlights (2)

testimony highlightAznaran explained that MA1 contained TECS person-encounter lists and described which fields derived from airline manifests and which were updated through border processing.Open in transcript →
Quote“Updated status, I have, in all of my experience querying travel records, I have never seen anything in that column, and I honestly don't know what it means or what it's supposed to.”— Michael William AznaranAznaran identified a limitation in his understanding of one field in the TECS report.Open in transcript →
CrossMichael William Aznaran — CrossMichael William AznaranLara Pomerantz2highlights24lines spoken

Summary

Aznaran said pre-9/11 CBP travel records may be incomplete and could not establish complete international travel histories for the people listed in MA-1.

Highlights (2)

testimony highlightAznaran said MA-1 could not be treated as a complete record of the listed individuals' international travel before 9/11.Open in transcript →
Quote“I can't really say whether these records truly reflect exactly any passenger's complete travel history.”— Michael William AznaranDirectly limits what can be concluded from the defense travel-record exhibit.Open in transcript →
RedirectMichael William Aznaran — RedirectMichael William AznaranChristian R. Everdell1highlight22lines spoken

Summary

Aznaran said specific MA-1 entries for Annie Farmer reflected immigration-site border crossings rather than airline manifest data.

Highlights (1)

testimony highlightAznaran confirmed that, when a traveler passed through an immigration site, TECS could update the record's date and time using kiosk or booth information rather than airline manifest data.Open in transcript →