Morocco told its former ambassador to leave the United States while he was under federal indictment, and not come back. Now Morocco is paying toward his pardon. That account comes from his own lawyers, in a filing with the Justice Department.
In May, the Boston law firm Mintz Levin registered as a foreign agent for Abdeslam Jaidi, a retired Moroccan diplomat (FARA registration 7722). Asked whether its client is directed by a foreign government, the firm checked yes and explained: “Mr. Jaidi was directed by the government of Morocco to return to Morocco from the United States and not to return to the United States while the indictment is pending.” The same filing says Morocco's Foreign Ministry paid the firm's bills for his criminal defense, and that the firm expected the ministry to pay for the pardon application too. It also says Jaidi “occasionally is asked to perform special projects at the Palace's request.”
The money showed up on schedule. Mintz reported $80,000 in lobbying income in the second quarter. On Oct. 8, its federal lobbying report for the third quarter listed Morocco's Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a contributor: $80,000.
Here is the case he left behind. In December 2019, federal prosecutors in White Plains indicted Jaidi, his ex-wife and her brother in United States v. Estrella Jaidi, No. 7:19-cr-00890. The charge: conspiracy to defraud the United States through a visa scheme. Prosecutors alleged they brought domestic workers into the country on false visa applications from about 2006 to 2019. The Southern District of New York's December 2019 release said Jaidi “remain[s] at large.”
He never stood trial. On May 13, his lawyers filed a pardon application. When the Pardon Attorney's office sent back the form for convicted people, the firm wrote back that its client “was never tried or convicted.”
That is the play. His government sends him home before trial. Then his government helps pay to make the charges go away. The domestic workers prosecutors described never saw the case reach a jury.
The other side: all of this is disclosed, as the law requires. Jaidi has not been convicted of anything, and the charges are allegations. Anyone can apply for a pardon, and the firm says the application seeks to “apply existing law.”
What remains open: whether the Justice Department or the White House has acted on the application. No plea, dismissal or sentencing in the case turned up in records checked after July 2021.