President Trump’s Justice Department announced on Tuesday, June 30, 2026 that a woman in Upstate New York was arrested and charged with trying to funnel money to a foreign terrorist organization.

Her name is Catherine Beth Washburn, 37, of Irondequoit, New York, near Rochester.

According to the DOJ, she is charged by criminal complaint with attempting to provide material support and resources, specifically currency, to Palestine Islamic Jihad, also known as Al-Quds Brigades.

PIJ is a designated foreign terrorist organization.

The alleged scale is what stands out.

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The DOJ says an analysis of financial records showed Washburn sent roughly 80 cryptocurrency transfers totaling about 30,116 USDC to an account used by a person who identified as a PIJ fighter in Gaza.

Prosecutors describe a recurring pipeline: transfer after transfer, not a stray transaction.

The Justice Department says the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force executed search warrants in February and March of 2026 and recovered electronic messages between Washburn and the individual who claimed to be a PIJ fighter. The agency says those warrants produced the messages and financial trail now sitting at the center of the case.

That person allegedly claimed to have taken part in attacks with PIJ against Israel.

DOJ says the two discussed purported PIJ attacks, weapons, and ammunition, placing the allegation far beyond ordinary political speech.

Prosecutors say the recovered messages included Washburn allegedly writing that she wished every day were October 7th, and that she would fight alongside the resistance if she lived in Gaza.

October 7 is the day Hamas slaughtered civilians inside Israel in 2023.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett A. Harvey for the Western District of New York and Trial Attorney Patrick Cashman of the DOJ National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

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The DOJ also connects Washburn to a group most Americans have never heard of.

The complaint alleges she is a leader of the Direct Action Movement for Palestinian Liberation, or DAMPL.

According to the DOJ, DAMPL was formed after the October 7, 2023 attack and rejects peaceful protest in favor of direct action, including alleged sabotage and property destruction against entities it associates with Israel.

That background turns the case from a local arrest into a national-security warning.

The GWU Program on Extremism published a report in September 2025 describing DAMPL as a domestic extremist group that emerged in early 2025. The report was published months before this DOJ case, placing the arrest inside a broader pattern researchers had already documented.

The report says the group escalated from online rhetoric to vandalism, intimidation, and attempted incendiary attacks. That progression is exactly why the alleged movement from propaganda to money matters here.

It also says DAMPL aligns itself with Hamas symbols and rhetoric, while drawing inspiration from militant direct-action campaigns abroad, including Palestine Action in the United Kingdom.

The researchers frame the group as a case study in how a foreign conflict can catalyze homegrown militancy inside the United States.

That is the thread federal investigators appear to be pulling: a suspected pipeline between U.S.-based extremism and a foreign terror group abroad.

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The local coverage out of Rochester confirms the arrest and detention.

Washburn was arrested and detained on Tuesday, according to the local report.

A criminal complaint is an allegation, and Washburn is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

The message from President Trump’s DOJ is clear. Sending money to a designated terrorist organization is a federal crime, and the government says it followed the crypto trail all the way to a Gaza fighter.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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