Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Monday that a misspelling of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s name allowed his 2012 trip to Russia to go undetected by the FBI.
Graham said the now-deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect’s six-month trip to Russia “never went into the system,” even though Russia had warned the United States about Tsarnaev’s radical Islamic leanings.
“He went over to Russia, but apparently when he got on the airplane, they misspelled his name, so it never went into the system that he actually went to Russia,” Graham said during an appearance on Fox News, as quoted by Politico. The South Carolina senator indicated that he received the information after speaking with FBI’s assistant director.
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to questions about Graham’s claim.
