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Catherine Beth Washburn, a 37-year-old New York resident, was charged Tuesday with attempting to fund the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist organization, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday.
Washburn leads the Direct Action Movement for Palestinian Liberation, known as DAMPL, which prosecutors say emerged following the October 7th massacre. The group has damaged property and carried out sabotage against sites connected to Israel.
According to the Justice Department, investigators recovered communications Washburn exchanged in February and March with a man claiming to be a member of PIJ. They discussed weapons, ammunition, and past PIJ attacks on Israel, which the man claimed to have participated in.
Washburn told him she hated Jews “very much” and wished Israel “would disappear.”
“I wish every day were October 7th,” she wrote.
“I feel excited every time I see news of the killing of an occupation soldier,” she added. Court documents include a photograph, released by the Justice Department, that appears to show Washburn holding grenades beside a Hamas flag.
Prosecutors say Washburn sent nearly 80 cryptocurrency payments, totaling about $30,116, to the account of the alleged PIJ contact.
U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo for the Western District of New York said Washburn was “fueled by her self-described hate of Israel and Jewish people” in seeking to help “terrorist organizations that use violence to further their agendas, including the Palestine Islamic Jihad.”
“Catherine Washburn was stopped,” he said, “and so too were her efforts to support violent extremism.”
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