CAIR and two other Islamist groups get named as uninidicted co-conspirators in a criminal conspiracy to support terrorist group Hamas. Whadya know.
Islamic Groups Named in Hamas Funding Case
Federal prosecutors have named three prominent Islamic organizations in America as participants in an alleged criminal conspiracy to support a Palestinian Arab terrorist group, Hamas.
Prosecutors applied the label of “unindicted co-conspirator” to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, and the North American Islamic Trust in connection with a trial planned in Texas next month for five officials of a defunct charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.
Daniel Pipes explains in more detail what it means for CAIR to be an “unidicted co-conspirator.” This post of his is a compendium of CAIR’s legal problems. Scroll to the bottom for this this particular element.
What is an unindicted co-conspirator? Someone by and about whom hearsay is permissible in the courtroom. Here is a definition by legal journalist Stuart Taylor, discussing an entirely unrelated case:
The prosecutor is saying in essence in court … that we believe this man was part of the criminal conspiracy, along with the people who are on trial. We haven’t indicted him but the relevance of that for the purposes of the trial is that [it] lets them get in more evidence about the unindicted co-conspirator’s … out-of-court statements than they otherwise could. It’s a way around the hearsay rule. … For example, if they want … one of their witnesses, to talk about what [a person] said to him, ordinarily that would be barred by the so-called hearsay rule. You can’t … testify in a trial about what somebody else said out of court. That rule has a lot of exceptions. One of the exceptions is if the person who you’re trying to quote … is named by the prosecution as an unindicted co-conspirator, then you can talk about what he said out of court.
Substitute “organization” for “man” and “person” and this description applies to the situation of CAIR, ISNA, and NAIT.
Comments: (1) CAIR being named as an unindicted co-conspirator complements the fact that many of its staff and associates are associated with terrorism, as I have documented in this entry.
(2) It is only logical that CAIR, whose origins lie in the Islamic Association for Palestine, which was founded by Hamas, be legally investigated in connection with Hamas.
(3) This may be the first time since 1994 that the press could not find a CAIR spokesman for a comment…
Democrat William Jefferson just got indicted on corruption – is this Bizarro world or what?
Let’s hope the president doesn’t find out about this “unindicted co-conspirator” stuff. His proclivity for avoiding conflict with enemies (other than conservatives who see his immigration amnesty bill for what it really is) might move him to have prosecutors quash the charges.
Boy, nary a peep about this in the MSM. What a surprise.