Federal prosecutors opposed a move to clear two groups named as unindicted co-conspirators in a terrorism-financing case Thursday, contending in a court filing that evidence presented at trial showed the organizations’ ties to the defendants and Middle Eastern terrorists.
The Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust were among some 250 Muslim individuals and groups named by the government in its case against the Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.
Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas to expunge the group’s names from public documents identifying them as unindicted co-conspirators. The ACLU seeks to have the court declare the government’s actions a violation of the Fifth Amendment right to due process.
In response, the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a court document Thursday saying several exhibits entered into evidence establish ISNA and NAIT’s relationship with defendants in the Holy Land Foundation case. The exhibits also show their ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestine Committee, organizations linked to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, according to the filing.
“Although Petitioners seek ‘expungement’ of their names from any document reflecting their co-conspirator status, they cannot expect this court to alter evidence properly admitted during the course of a public trial,” the filing reads.
“Petitioners, in fact, do not dispute that once such information is admitted into evidence at trial it is property in the public domain.”
The government also contends the request is untimely, since it comes more than a year after federal prosecutors presented trial briefs and some nine months after the Holy Land case went to trial.
The case against five former Holy Land officials accused of helping finance Hamas, which the U.S. government designated as a terrorist group, ended in a mistrial last year. Another trial is set for September.
A federal judge declined to dismiss an indictment against the former charity leaders this month, brushing aside defense arguments of prosecutorial misconduct.