Washington
U.S. uses dormant court to seek deportation of Afghan woman accused of aiding terror plot
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Afghan woman accused of supporting an Islamic State-inspired plot in the U.S. is the first person facing deportation through the Trump administration’s use of an obscure court that remained dormant for 30 years, according to court records filed Wednesday.
The Alien Terrorist Removal Court is scheduled to hold a hearing on Thursday in Washington, D.C., for the government’s petition to deport Nazira Haji Zada, of Fort Worth, Texas. Nazira was arrested earlier this week.
An FBI memo dated July 15 said it “developed information” that Nazira is an Islamic State supporter who had her children pledge their loyalty to the terrorist group. Nazira “supported” a plot by relatives to carry out an ISIS-inspired attack in the U.S., the memo says.
Court filings identify Nazira as the mother and mother-in-law of two Afghan men who were convicted in Oklahoma for their roles in the 2024 Election Day plot. Her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, was sentenced last November to 15
years in prison and court records show he previously agreed to be removed from the U.S. after he is released from prison.
Her son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, previously worked as a security guard for an American military installation in Afghanistan. He pleaded guilty to conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State group, and prosecutors have said he took steps to advance his attack plans by ordering AK-47 rifles, liquidating his family’s assets and buying one-way tickets for his wife and child to travel home to Afghanistan.
The Alien Terrorist Removal Court was established in 1996 but had never received a petition until this month, when the Justice Department filed an application seeking Nazira’s removal. Documents in support of that application were unsealed Wednesday night ahead of a scheduled hearing Thursday.
The long-dormant court has a specific authority to conduct deportation proceedings for individuals whom the Justice Department classifies as “alien terrorists.”
The court is comprised of five federal judges from different districts across the country who are appointed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, with all proceedings, at least for now, taking place at the federal courthouse in Washington.
“Congress created the Alien Terrorist Removal Court three decades ago to remove from the United States alien terrorists who never should have been here in the first place,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
“The allegations in this case show the matriarch of an ISIS-sympathizing family aiding in a plot to launch a mass casualty attack on American voters on Election Day. The Department’s application in this court makes clear that terrorists have no place in the United States of America,” Blanche added.
Wisconsin
Judge says voters who have returned absentee ballot for state primary cannot get a new one
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin voters who have already returned their absentee ballots for the state’s primary are not allowed to void those and request a new one, a judge ruled Wednesday.
The ruling deals a blow to Democrats, who filed a lawsuit seeking to give voters a do-over because of a chaotic party primary in the governor’s race.
More than 117,000 absentee ballots had been returned by Wednesday. Democrats were concerned that many of those might have been cast for Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, who had been seen as a Democratic frontrunner before she dropped out on July 17 amid a campaign finance scandal. A day later, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who had bowed out on July 8, reentered the race.
Rodriguez’s name remains on the ballot, along with former state economic development director Missy Hughes, who dropped out in June.
The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission voted 4-2 on July 9 to distribute guidance to clerks saying absentee voters cannot change their ballot after it has been returned. The rarely used process is known as ballot spoiling.
Democrats objected and supported the lawsuit filed by three voters, arguing that state law allows voters who have submitted absentee ballots to change their mind before those ballots are counted on Election Day.
“Voters across Wisconsin will be disenfranchised” if not allowed to do that, attorney Eduardo Castro argued in court on Tuesday.
But Dane County Circuit Judge David Conway disagreed, ruling on Wednesday that “the unambiguous language of the statute does not allow a voter to spoil an absentee ballot after it is returned.” He said the guidance issued by
the elections commission to the roughly 2,000 clerks who run elections at the local level was consistent with the law.
The judge declined to issue a temporary restraining order sought by Democrats. They had wanted the judge to order the state elections commission to rescind its guidance.
“The judge got it right,” said Don Millis, the Republican chair of the elections commission. “The law is clear. Once a voter returns an absentee ballot to the clerk, the voter cannot decide to change his or her vote. The law does not permit do-overs.”
Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Devin Remiker said the ruling was wrong, but didn’t say if the party would appeal.
The Republican National Committee opposed the effort to allow for revoting.
Ballot spoiling was the subject of a 2022 lawsuit brought by a Republican group. In that case, a Waukesha County judge agreed that the elections commission must rescind its guidance that allowed voters to cast a second ballot.
But the state appeals court earlier this year vacated that ruling on technical grounds and did not rule on the merits.
The winner of the Democratic primary will advance to November’s general election, most likely against Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who has only token opposition in his party’s primary. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is not seeking a third term.
Democrats hope to keep the governor’s office and flip both chambers of the Legislature to gain full control of state government for the first time since 2010.
Illinois
Film financier Jason Cloth indicted in alleged $100M Ponzi scheme tied to movie funding
Film producer Jason Cloth, who financed “Joker,” “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” and dozens of other movies, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on wire fraud charges in connection with what prosecutors say was a $100 million Ponzi scheme.
The indictment against Cloth, 60, was unsealed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Cloth was arrested the same day in Los Angeles, where he made his first court appearance, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois said.
The indictment alleges Cloth solicited money from investors, telling them the funds would be used for a film or a video game platform. Instead, the indictment alleges, he used the money for other projects like a Canadian real estate development and to pay off earlier investors.
Court records do not reveal if Cloth has obtained an attorney in the criminal case. Several attorneys representing Cloth in lawsuits in Florida and California did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The indictment says Cloth operated a Canada-based company called Creative Wealth Media Finance Corp., and that starting in 2019 he solicited money from several clients to invest in film and entertainment projects. The indictment says he got more than $100 million from one investment adviser in Illinois, the adviser’s clients and others, and that he lied to the investors about the value of their investments.
He’s charged with seven counts of wire fraud, each punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Cloth is also being asked to forfeit more than $12 million. The FBI asked that anyone who believes they might have been a victim contact the agency’s Chicago office by filling out an online form.
It’s not the first time the film financier has faced allegations of financial misdeeds. He’s been named in several lawsuits from investors in recent years, including a class-action lawsuit alleging film-funding fraud in Chicago, a Florida lawsuit from an investor who says Cloth’s company breached contracts for several entertainment loans, and a lawsuit from investors in New York that was later dismissed. Cloth has fought the claims in Chicago and Florida, and those cases are ongoing.
Last year the Ontario Securities Commission started an enforcement proceeding against Cloth and his company, bringing allegations that are similar to the Illinois indictment. The commission alleges Cloth and his company raised more than $500 million from investors for various film and television projects, and then diverted $70 million of the funds to other uses, like repaying earlier investors. That case is ongoing.
Washington
Judge weighs bid to block or reverse transfers of transgender inmates into a segregated unit
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has violated a court order by transferring several incarcerated transgender women to a segregated prison unit, an attorney for the inmates argued on Wednesday in urging a federal judge to enforce the order.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C., didn’t rule from the bench on the inmates’ request to return them to general population at women’s prisons and block more transfers into the segregated unit. But the judge expressed concern that the transfers violate a preliminary injunction that he issued last month.
“You’re violating my order, aren’t you?” Lamberth asked Justice Department attorney Jared Littman.
“No, your honor,” Littman said. “Based on the words of your order, there was no violation.”
Lamberth, however, said it appears that the government has violated his previous order “on its face” by segregating the plaintiffs and depriving them of “all of their privileges” from when they were housed in women’s facilities.
Ten transgender women are currently segregated in the same unit at a prison in Fort Worth, Texas. Eight of them are plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging an executive order that President Donald Trump signed last year, directing the federal Bureau of Prisons to house inmates based on their biological sex and to halt gender-affirming care.
Lamberth, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President Ronald Reagan, ruled on June 7 that officials must house the lawsuit’s plaintiffs in women’s prisons or women’s halfway houses. The judge enjoined prison officials from enforcing part of Trump’s executive order.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Alexander Shalom argued that housing the plaintiffs in a segregated unit violates their constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment.
“This is a backdoor attempt to implement the executive order,” Shalom told the judge. “The conditions are not in any way comparable to a women’s facility.”
Shalom said the transfers have exacerbated plaintiffs’ gender dysphoria, which is the distress that a person feels because their assigned gender and gender identity don’t match. The medical condition has been linked to depression and suicidal thoughts.
“Defendants minimize this harm, but they can’t deny it’s occurring,” he said.
Government attorneys argue that the transfers don’t violate the injunction because the judge didn’t require the plaintiffs to be housed alongside cisgender female inmates or share common spaces with them. They also claim it’s premature for the plaintiffs to challenge the transfers in court before utilizing the prison system’s administrative complaint process
U.S. uses dormant court to seek deportation of Afghan woman accused of aiding terror plot
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Afghan woman accused of supporting an Islamic State-inspired plot in the U.S. is the first person facing deportation through the Trump administration’s use of an obscure court that remained dormant for 30 years, according to court records filed Wednesday.
The Alien Terrorist Removal Court is scheduled to hold a hearing on Thursday in Washington, D.C., for the government’s petition to deport Nazira Haji Zada, of Fort Worth, Texas. Nazira was arrested earlier this week.
An FBI memo dated July 15 said it “developed information” that Nazira is an Islamic State supporter who had her children pledge their loyalty to the terrorist group. Nazira “supported” a plot by relatives to carry out an ISIS-inspired attack in the U.S., the memo says.
Court filings identify Nazira as the mother and mother-in-law of two Afghan men who were convicted in Oklahoma for their roles in the 2024 Election Day plot. Her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, was sentenced last November to 15
years in prison and court records show he previously agreed to be removed from the U.S. after he is released from prison.
Her son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, previously worked as a security guard for an American military installation in Afghanistan. He pleaded guilty to conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State group, and prosecutors have said he took steps to advance his attack plans by ordering AK-47 rifles, liquidating his family’s assets and buying one-way tickets for his wife and child to travel home to Afghanistan.
The Alien Terrorist Removal Court was established in 1996 but had never received a petition until this month, when the Justice Department filed an application seeking Nazira’s removal. Documents in support of that application were unsealed Wednesday night ahead of a scheduled hearing Thursday.
The long-dormant court has a specific authority to conduct deportation proceedings for individuals whom the Justice Department classifies as “alien terrorists.”
The court is comprised of five federal judges from different districts across the country who are appointed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, with all proceedings, at least for now, taking place at the federal courthouse in Washington.
“Congress created the Alien Terrorist Removal Court three decades ago to remove from the United States alien terrorists who never should have been here in the first place,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
“The allegations in this case show the matriarch of an ISIS-sympathizing family aiding in a plot to launch a mass casualty attack on American voters on Election Day. The Department’s application in this court makes clear that terrorists have no place in the United States of America,” Blanche added.
Wisconsin
Judge says voters who have returned absentee ballot for state primary cannot get a new one
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin voters who have already returned their absentee ballots for the state’s primary are not allowed to void those and request a new one, a judge ruled Wednesday.
The ruling deals a blow to Democrats, who filed a lawsuit seeking to give voters a do-over because of a chaotic party primary in the governor’s race.
More than 117,000 absentee ballots had been returned by Wednesday. Democrats were concerned that many of those might have been cast for Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, who had been seen as a Democratic frontrunner before she dropped out on July 17 amid a campaign finance scandal. A day later, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who had bowed out on July 8, reentered the race.
Rodriguez’s name remains on the ballot, along with former state economic development director Missy Hughes, who dropped out in June.
The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission voted 4-2 on July 9 to distribute guidance to clerks saying absentee voters cannot change their ballot after it has been returned. The rarely used process is known as ballot spoiling.
Democrats objected and supported the lawsuit filed by three voters, arguing that state law allows voters who have submitted absentee ballots to change their mind before those ballots are counted on Election Day.
“Voters across Wisconsin will be disenfranchised” if not allowed to do that, attorney Eduardo Castro argued in court on Tuesday.
But Dane County Circuit Judge David Conway disagreed, ruling on Wednesday that “the unambiguous language of the statute does not allow a voter to spoil an absentee ballot after it is returned.” He said the guidance issued by
the elections commission to the roughly 2,000 clerks who run elections at the local level was consistent with the law.
The judge declined to issue a temporary restraining order sought by Democrats. They had wanted the judge to order the state elections commission to rescind its guidance.
“The judge got it right,” said Don Millis, the Republican chair of the elections commission. “The law is clear. Once a voter returns an absentee ballot to the clerk, the voter cannot decide to change his or her vote. The law does not permit do-overs.”
Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Devin Remiker said the ruling was wrong, but didn’t say if the party would appeal.
The Republican National Committee opposed the effort to allow for revoting.
Ballot spoiling was the subject of a 2022 lawsuit brought by a Republican group. In that case, a Waukesha County judge agreed that the elections commission must rescind its guidance that allowed voters to cast a second ballot.
But the state appeals court earlier this year vacated that ruling on technical grounds and did not rule on the merits.
The winner of the Democratic primary will advance to November’s general election, most likely against Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who has only token opposition in his party’s primary. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is not seeking a third term.
Democrats hope to keep the governor’s office and flip both chambers of the Legislature to gain full control of state government for the first time since 2010.
Illinois
Film financier Jason Cloth indicted in alleged $100M Ponzi scheme tied to movie funding
Film producer Jason Cloth, who financed “Joker,” “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” and dozens of other movies, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on wire fraud charges in connection with what prosecutors say was a $100 million Ponzi scheme.
The indictment against Cloth, 60, was unsealed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Cloth was arrested the same day in Los Angeles, where he made his first court appearance, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois said.
The indictment alleges Cloth solicited money from investors, telling them the funds would be used for a film or a video game platform. Instead, the indictment alleges, he used the money for other projects like a Canadian real estate development and to pay off earlier investors.
Court records do not reveal if Cloth has obtained an attorney in the criminal case. Several attorneys representing Cloth in lawsuits in Florida and California did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The indictment says Cloth operated a Canada-based company called Creative Wealth Media Finance Corp., and that starting in 2019 he solicited money from several clients to invest in film and entertainment projects. The indictment says he got more than $100 million from one investment adviser in Illinois, the adviser’s clients and others, and that he lied to the investors about the value of their investments.
He’s charged with seven counts of wire fraud, each punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Cloth is also being asked to forfeit more than $12 million. The FBI asked that anyone who believes they might have been a victim contact the agency’s Chicago office by filling out an online form.
It’s not the first time the film financier has faced allegations of financial misdeeds. He’s been named in several lawsuits from investors in recent years, including a class-action lawsuit alleging film-funding fraud in Chicago, a Florida lawsuit from an investor who says Cloth’s company breached contracts for several entertainment loans, and a lawsuit from investors in New York that was later dismissed. Cloth has fought the claims in Chicago and Florida, and those cases are ongoing.
Last year the Ontario Securities Commission started an enforcement proceeding against Cloth and his company, bringing allegations that are similar to the Illinois indictment. The commission alleges Cloth and his company raised more than $500 million from investors for various film and television projects, and then diverted $70 million of the funds to other uses, like repaying earlier investors. That case is ongoing.
Washington
Judge weighs bid to block or reverse transfers of transgender inmates into a segregated unit
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has violated a court order by transferring several incarcerated transgender women to a segregated prison unit, an attorney for the inmates argued on Wednesday in urging a federal judge to enforce the order.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C., didn’t rule from the bench on the inmates’ request to return them to general population at women’s prisons and block more transfers into the segregated unit. But the judge expressed concern that the transfers violate a preliminary injunction that he issued last month.
“You’re violating my order, aren’t you?” Lamberth asked Justice Department attorney Jared Littman.
“No, your honor,” Littman said. “Based on the words of your order, there was no violation.”
Lamberth, however, said it appears that the government has violated his previous order “on its face” by segregating the plaintiffs and depriving them of “all of their privileges” from when they were housed in women’s facilities.
Ten transgender women are currently segregated in the same unit at a prison in Fort Worth, Texas. Eight of them are plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging an executive order that President Donald Trump signed last year, directing the federal Bureau of Prisons to house inmates based on their biological sex and to halt gender-affirming care.
Lamberth, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President Ronald Reagan, ruled on June 7 that officials must house the lawsuit’s plaintiffs in women’s prisons or women’s halfway houses. The judge enjoined prison officials from enforcing part of Trump’s executive order.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Alexander Shalom argued that housing the plaintiffs in a segregated unit violates their constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment.
“This is a backdoor attempt to implement the executive order,” Shalom told the judge. “The conditions are not in any way comparable to a women’s facility.”
Shalom said the transfers have exacerbated plaintiffs’ gender dysphoria, which is the distress that a person feels because their assigned gender and gender identity don’t match. The medical condition has been linked to depression and suicidal thoughts.
“Defendants minimize this harm, but they can’t deny it’s occurring,” he said.
Government attorneys argue that the transfers don’t violate the injunction because the judge didn’t require the plaintiffs to be housed alongside cisgender female inmates or share common spaces with them. They also claim it’s premature for the plaintiffs to challenge the transfers in court before utilizing the prison system’s administrative complaint process
