Welcome to Court Watch #192. We’ll get to cable news fighting the good fight for public access (and not the case you’re thinking), flamethrowers and Shabbat services, and a Texas golf course with a pandemic problem. But first, let’s talk about a 25-year-old terror financing case that’s helping inform criminal prosecutions this year.
It didn’t get a lot of coverage outside of a dogged criminal justice reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, but the Justice Department quietly secured an indictment this week against a 56-year-old man, Raed Yousef, in the Middle District of Florida for allegedly funneling money to Hamas. Prosecutors wrote Yousef used PayPal to send thousands of dollars to what he allegedly told an associate were intended for the “true men,” not just “the babies, public people, or the needy ones,” but “the other people-the men.”
There’s a lot to unpack in it, but we were particularly struck by a seemingly throwaway line in the government’s detention memo. In the filing, prosecutors mention that a search of Yousef’s residence found a composition notebook with the name of a now-defunct American organization: the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which the U.S. designated as a terrorist organization and seized its assets in 2001 for serving as a purported fundraising front for Hamas. After a mistrial and then a successful conviction, a federal judge in Texas sentenced its founders in 2009 to between 15 and 65 years in prison after a jury found they funneled $12.4 million to Hamas. The Holy Land Foundation investigation has always been a lodestar of a case for those who argue that there exists a network of fundraising in the United States for Hamas and other Muslim-brotherhood link groups. Conversely, some civil liberties advocates see the Holy Land Foundation investigation as a lightning rod case and an example of government overreach shortly after September 11.
Apart from the Florida case, the Justice Department has been tallying a series of October 7th and Hamas-related cases flying under the radar. In June, FBI agents arrested a man in California who allegedly acted as an online fundraiser and sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hamas. In New York, prosecutors accused the global director of a Muslim charity organization in the United Kingdom, the Al-Khair Foundation, of coordinating with Hamas leadership to raise funds for the terror group. In Yousef’s case, prosecutors allege a French non-governmental organization was a key money conduit for his conduct. The NGO, which we’ve identified but are waiting to give them a chance to comment until we name, had ties to many seemingly mainstream European Muslim organizations but a history of quiet connections to the Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Indeed, with help from its European law enforcement partners, it appears federal investigators are quietly dusting off a well-worn playbook for investigating Hamas funding and Muslim-brotherhood linked groups in the United States and Europe. But no one is noticing you’re all understandably focused on a lesbian bar in Massachusetts.
Finally in Louisiana, prosecutors and defense attorneys are gearing up for trial in the case of a man accused of participating in Hamas’ October 7th attack itself. The man’s wife is also facing charges in Louisiana for allegedly helping him lie on a Visa application to enter the U.S. We asked Main Justice to weigh in on the seemingly newfound energy investigating October 7th, but we didn't hear back.
On Wednesday, a federal judge ordered Yousef to be detained until his trial in Florida after his defense attorney filed a motion for his release. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment.
With that, let’s talk about the rest of the dockets for the week.
The Docket Roundup
We’re pretty sure we’d quit lawyering forever if we ever got this order.
For a brief shining moment CSPAN was the epicenter of the public-right-to-access resistance. That is, until some sad corporate lawyer realized they were blatantly violating a court order. We’ll remember fondly your efforts to spark a revolution.
We’ve never seen a text about a lawn service turn into an ISIS-related case, but there’s a first time for everything.
BBC thinks one of President Trump’s former attorneys might be trying to duck a subpoena in the defamation case.
The Department of Justice announced charges against 16 noncitizens for election-related crimes.
On a related note, prosecutors charged a Utah mailman who allegedly said he threw out 300 primary ballots out of laziness, but have they considered how the mail never stops, Jerry?
Folks, it’s been six years. Congress, the executive branch, and an innumerable number of teachers have all figured it out. If the courts don’t yet know how to mute Zoom, we don’t know how to help you.
Buzzfeed was sued over a purported data breach.
Yet another pardoned J6er sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
The ATF reportedly caught an illegal drug seller by <check notes> looking at the screenshot of him during a FaceTime call as he was screen sharing his gun purchases.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service turned over some public lands in Southern Texas to SpaceX and NASA.
There’s a threat case out of Tennessee involving FBI Director Kash Patel that takes some interesting turns.
An Alabama librarian is suing over losing her job for refusing to move books.
A federal judge acknowledging that police may be engaging in racial profiling in their immigration stops but finding it not illegal is something.
Prosecutors in the alleged Jan. 6th pipebomber case are trying to get defense counsel thrown off the case, arguing their representation of the defendant in a civil case is a conflict of interest.
The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security accused a UAE-based company and its Estonian owner of smuggling airplane parts to Russia.
We politely question the decision-making process of anyone who allegedly calls in a threat to the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center.
A group of Columbia University students sued the university over a “teach-in” protesting the war in Gaza that purportedly devolved into a brawl.
Some threat cases are more serious than others. In Florida, FBI agents arrested a man who had a flamethrower and was allegedly assembling a .50 caliber machine gun. The criminal complaint states he wrote about “hunt[ing] Jews” and suggests he may have been planning an imminent attack on a synagogue. We went down the Rabbit Hole of the purported Instagram post; there were multiple people there while he allegedly spewed his antisemitism.
The DEA quietly arrested one of its most wanted fugitives after almost 20 years on the run.
A man who was on supervised release in Utah reportedly caught a gun charge after confronting someone who borrowed his girlfriend’s car.
The government is trying to block the release of Cilia Maduro, who has been in detention since she and her husband were captured in Caracas.
We can’t say for sure, but we would bet good money that this Texas indictment is yet another reminder for defense attorneys to remind their clients that jail calls are recorded.
Relatedly, a nonprofit legal aid organization sued the New York Department of Corrections to prevent it from monitoring prisoner phone calls to the group.
There’s a purported fake coupon scam out of Michigan that netted almost $600,000. We’re curious just how many counterfeit coupons allegedly had to be printed.
Our song of the week gets played in our newsroom every time someone emails us about a typo. Though the title is abrupt, as a whole it is lyrically beautiful. Feel free to point out our typos this week so we can throw it back on. If you need something even sweeter, maybe try the acoustic version of Isimo.
A Texas golf course appears to have gotten into some trouble with pandemic loans.
Are you really trying if you’re not calling into city council meetings before the closing arguments in your bribery trial? D.C. residents want to know. Also, while we’re semi on the subject, please don’t ruin porchfest.
There’s a discrimination case involving a science museum in Georgia.
More than 50 years later, there’s a FOIA case over DB Cooper.
An Orthodox Jewish summer camp lost its lawsuit against the state of New York over a law that prohibits possessing firearms at summer camps.
Props to UC San Diego researchers who have figured out how many sealed cases there are in the dockets. We reverse engineered their approach and found some interesting court cases. Story to come.
A truck driver was indicted in Connecticut for allegedly stealing cargo.
They haven’t announced it yet with all the others, but the Justice Department filed a new complaint in the Eastern District of Virginia to strip the U.S. citizenship of a naturalized citizen.
Prosecutors say a Michigan man ran a Medicaid scam and forced employees to work without pay at a haphazard opioid treatment facility.
Your pro se of the week probably exceeds the filing page limit. Also, if you’re a fan of public corruption cases, you probably recognize the filer’s name.
We had a lot of fun playing with Justice Connection’s new dashboard that tracks the Justice Department’s caseload over the past decade.
Is a statement a threat if it’s said in the middle of an intense video game? The Fifth Circuit seemed to leave the question up to a jury. This case from Alabama about alleged comments made in the middle of a Fortnite round might give defense attorneys another shot at arguing it’s protected speech.
The Justice Department announced the extradition of the alleged leader of an ISIS cell in Brooklyn who’s been on the run for more than a decade. He’s accused of providing material support to al-Nusrah. It was nice of the Bureau to wait a day till Syria's president departed the United Nations before arresting a member of the designated terrorist group he used to lead.
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