Deceased Boston bombing “Suspect 1” Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s American born wife and young daughter were on food stamps and Aid to Families with Dependent Children in Massachusetts during the six months he traveled to and stayed in Russia in early 2012.
The Boston Herald reported on Saturday that Tsarnaev’s wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaeva, whom he married in June 2010, and their now 3 year old daughter received both food stamps and AFDC from September 2011 to November 2012. Food stamps are paid by federal taxpayers and AFDC is paid by both federal and state taxpayers.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev flew to Moscow on an Aeroflot flight in January 2012 and did not return to the United States until July 2012. During this six months trip to Russia, Tsarnaev stayed with his father in the Russian republic of Dagestan for three months, but also visited Chechnya. It is unclear if Tsarnaev met with Islamist radicals during this trip who may have trained him in preparation for the April 15, 2013 Boston bombings he and his brother Dzhokhar are alleged to have carried out.
This new information raised several questions about Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s trip to Russia. First, if his wife and daughter were on aid, who paid for his ticket? Additionally, why did Massachusetts authorities fail to flag Tsarnaev’s travel as a possible factor that would influence his wife and daughter’s eligibility for aid?
Breitbart News attempted to reach officials at the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance, the agency that administers food stamps and AFDC programs in the state, to determine if Tsarnaev’s travel to a foreign country while his wife and child were receiving aid should have triggered an eligibility alarm. No one was available over the weekend for comment.
Breitbart News has been unable to find any evidence that Tsarnaev, 26 years old at the time of his death on April 19, 2013, was ever gainfully employed during the decade he lived in the United States.
According to the UK Daily Mail, Ms. Russell Tsarnaeva’s father is reportedly a Yale-educated physician who lives in a $467,000 house that the family recently put up for sale in Rhode Island.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.