Excerpt
They have been described as scheming secret agents living in the shadows of the suburbs, but they looked no more sinister than bored parents in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Thursday, slumped, arms crossed, as if enduring another long PTA meeting.
Husbands and wives shared the defense table, two mothers and two fathers, as the sensational charges were fleshed out even as the more mundane sides of their lives were explored.
Kindergarten play dates versus the tap-tap-tap of coded radio transmissions. Housework versus the “brush pass” exchange of parcels. They were described as having concealed their missions from even their closest observers.
“There is no inkling at all,” said Assistant United States Attorney Michael Farbiarz, “that their children, who they live with, have any idea that their parents are Russian agents.”
In the end, in court, the side of their lives described as cloaked in secrecy and deception mostly won out over parenthood, with two defendants denied bail. Another was allowed to serve a kind of house arrest under conditions yet to be met.
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