Bijan Rafiekian seeks to avoid Michael Flynn's high-profile lobbying case

Bijan Rafiekian, the ex-business partner of former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn, entered a plea of not guilty on Tuesday after being charged with unregistered lobbying for Turkey aimed at extraditing a Muslim cleric living in the U.S.

The plea was entered at an arraignment for Rafiekian in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, said Joshua Stueve, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in the Eastern District of Virginia, which unsealed Rafiekian's indictment on Monday.