WASHINGTON — A Republican senator says the name of Tamerlan Tsarnaev — the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing who died in a firefight with police — was misspelled on his 2011 trip to Russia.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Tsarnaev’s correct name never went into “the system,” and this thwarted the FBI in discovering the six-month trip. Graham said on Fox News that he spoke to the assistant director of the FBI on Sunday night.
Graham’s spokesman, Kevin Bishop, confirmed the senator’s comments on Monday.
The trip is the subject of the investigation into last Monday’s deadly bombings.
Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House intelligence committee, had said Sunday that Tsarnaev may have used an alias to travel to Russia. Rogers made the comments on NBC.
Meanwhile, the FBI is probing whether Tsarnaev’s widow knew about his deadly marathon plot, a law-enforcement source told The Post yesterday.
Federal agents yesterday made three visits to the Rhode Island home of the parents of Katherine Russell, 24, an all-American-girl-turned-terrorist’s-bride.
During the first encounter, the agents were in the home for about 10 minutes.
A couple of hours later, The Post observed the same agents — two men and a woman — briefly speaking with Russell’s mom, Judith, through the door. Russell, who has a 3-year-old daughter, Zahara, with Tsarnaev, 26, is believed to have been inside.
