WASHINGTON—The government shutdown is not slowing down President Donald Trump’s Justice Department.
Over the course of the last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s team successfully pressured Facebook to remove a page targeting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, brought Antifa-related terrorism charges in the Texas attack on ICE officers, seized $15 billion in Bitcoin from a massive “pig butchering” scam, and, perhaps most significantly, secured an indictment charging former National Security Advisor John Bolton with crimes related to the mishandling of classified information, including eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of unlawful retention of NDI.
“From restoring one tier of justice, to making key arrests, to ongoing successful surges in Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice are advancing President Trump’s agenda and Making America Safe Again,” Justice Department spokesman Gates McGavick told The Daily Wire.
In another significant move, the Justice Department also arrested a 33-year-old man, Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi, a Gazan living in Louisiana, for alleged involvement in the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
“After hiding out in the United States, this monster has been found and charged with participating in the atrocities of October 7 — the single deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Bondi said in a statement first obtained by The Daily Wire.
“While nothing can fully heal the scars left by Hamas’s brutal attack, this Department’s Joint Task Force October 7 is dedicated to finding and prosecuting those responsible for that horrific day, including the murder of dozens of American citizens,” she shared. “We will continue to stand by Jewish Americans and Jewish people around the world against anti-Semitism and terrorism in all its forms.”
Hamas kidnaps an Israeli woman on October 7, 2023. (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)
Al-Muhtadi learned about the “unfolding” attack on October 7, 2023, and “sprang into action,” arming himself, recruiting other marauders, and entering Israel, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg shared on Friday. Eisenberg said there is “evidence placing him near one of the worst-hit Israeli communities.”
“Subsequently,” Eisenberg said, “Al-Muhtadi fraudulently obtained a visa to enter the United States where he hoped to remain undetected. This arrest is but the first public step in bringing to justice those responsible for harming Americans on that day.”
The Justice Department wants this arrest to serve as a reminder that those who commit acts of terrorism cannot escape justice by hiding in American communities. In a press release, the DOJ says that Al-Muhtadi is an operative for the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s (DFLP) military wing, known as the National Resistance Brigades or the Martyr Umar al-Qasim Forces, a “Gaza-based paramilitary group that participated in the Hamas-led terrorist attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.”
Hamas militants of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades move towards the Erez crossing between Israel and the northern Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. (Photo by Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Al-Muhtadi crossed into Israel with the intention of helping Hamas in their terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, the DOJ said, and his phone “utilized” a cell tower near the Kibbutz Kfar Aza in Israel, where Hamas massacred dozens of Israelis and four American citizens.
“In addition, Al-Muhtadi allegedly provided false information in his U.S. visa application relating to his involvement with a paramilitary organization, connection to Hamas, participation in a terrorist attack, and military training,” the DOJ says in a release. “Al-Muhtadi swore to the accuracy of numerous materially false statements in his visa application with respect to at least his affiliation with DFLP, the NRB, and Hamas, his training, and his involvement in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.”
He entered the United States on September 12, 2024, the Justice Department said.
.png)
.png)
