Washington, D.C. (November 22, 2017) – Federal Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, sitting in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, is preparing to rule on an evidentiary question that could expose the Council on American-Islamic Relation (CAIR) as a front for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. The important evidentiary ruling is expected soon as part of the pretrial motions in what has become known as the Muslim Mafia Trial.
CAIR, which bills itself as “America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization,” sued the Center for Security Policy (CSP) – a national security policy think tank – and its employees for working on a documentary designed to expose CAIR’s Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas ties and other illegal activities.
The lawsuit initially began when, in 2008, CAIR sued Dave Gaubatz, a former, highly decorated counter-terrorism specialist who worked in and out of uniform for the U.S. government for more than 20 years and served behind combat lines during the Iraq war, after he and his operatives, including his son Chris, went in undercover as CAIR interns.
Once inside the organization, Gaubatz learned of multiple crimes committed by the Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas front organization. As a result, well-known author, Paul Sperry, wrote a book outlining CAIR’s crimes and terror connections based upon Gaubatz’s information. The book revealed how Gaubatz trained his son to work as a CAIR intern and to gain access to the criminal evidence.
But, instead of an FBI criminal investigation and Department of Justice indictment against CAIR for its criminal conduct, CAIR sued Gaubatz and his son for wiretapping and computer hacking, along with a whole host of other torts. To this day, the government, even as it knows of CAIR’s Hamas and direct terror-related connections, has failed to bring charges against CAIR, providing the organization with the daylight to sue the Gaubatz father and son team.
Several years later, CAIR amended its lawsuit and named additional defendants, including CSP, headed up by former Reagan administration official, Frank Gaffney, and several CSP employees. The thrust of the claim against the CSP defendants was that Dave Gaubatz’s operatives gained entry into CAIR while working on a CSP documentary about CAIR’s Muslim Brotherhood and terrorist connections.
The American Freedom Law Center (AFLC), founded and led by David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise, represents the CSP defendants.
Because CAIR has gone through more than a dozen lawyers, the case has meandered for more than seven years. In fact, just recently, CAIR fired its 14th lawyer and hired its 15th, Faisal Mahmood Gil, to step in at the proverbial 11th hour in the waning moments before trial.
The Court has taken note of CAIR’s ever-changing legal representation when it previously denied CAIR’s last-minute effort to reopen discovery:
The Court notes that this request to reopen discovery comes as Plaintiffs retained new attorneys—once again—purportedly to take this case to trial. While it is Plaintiffs’ prerogative to switch jockeys mid-course, they may not rewind time and begin the race again. To do so would be neither fair nor efficient.
Robert Muise, Co-Founder and Senior Counsel of AFLC, which is representing CSP and its employees, commented:
“CAIR is in trouble not only because of its last-minute change in trial counsel and few surviving claims, but also with the possibility of a public trial that will most certainly expose CAIR for what it is – a subversive Islamist front group.”
David Yerushalmi, AFLC Co-Founder and Senior Counsel, commented:
“We are eager to get to trial to prove in court what the documentary sought to prove in the public square: that CAIR is a Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas front group.”
CAIR, a self-described Muslim public interest law firm, was previously named as an unindicted co-conspirator and Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas front group by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the successful prosecution of a terrorist funding cell organized around one of the largest Muslim charities, the Holy Land Foundation (HLF). HLF raised funds for violent jihad on behalf of Hamas, and top CAIR officials were part of the conspiracy. As a result, the FBI publicly terminated its outreach activities with CAIR.