A middle-class upstate New York mother has been charged with allegedly supporting an Islamic terrorist group after donating $30,000 in cryptocurrency to the violent, antisemitic group, federal prosecutors introduced Wednesday.
Catherine Beth Washburn, 37, a self-proclaimed stay-at-home mother, based on her Fb account, exchanged messages with a terrorist within the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group in Gaza, as soon as telling him “I want daily had been October 7,” based on prosecutors within the Western District of New York.
Washburn, who’s from Irondequoit, simply outdoors of Rochester, is the alleged chief of an extremist group that fashioned within the wake of Hamas’ assault on Israel in 2023, the feds stated.
The anti-Israel group, known as the Direct Motion Motion for Palestinian Liberation, rejects peaceable protests and encourages sabotage and property destruction, based on prosecutors.
Outdated media photographs present her as a mom of two kids, smiling together with her husband. She lived in a $280,000, three-bedroom home and seems to have spent important time within the small city of Dansville.
Nonetheless, her social media accounts are actually stuffed with pics of her sporting a hijab and anti-Israel diatribes — together with one publish exhibiting the house addresses of so-called “Zionists.”
It’s unclear whether or not she transformed to Islam or precisely when she allegedly grew to become radicalized.
In her messages with the PIJ fighter, Washburn allegedly stated, “If I lived in Gaza, I might battle alongside the resistance.”
She additionally stated she hated Jews “very a lot” and wished Israel “would disappear,” the feds claimed.
“I really feel excited each time I see information of the killing of an occupation soldier,” she stated, referring to Israeli troopers.
Washburn then despatched the fighter a complete of $30,000 in cryptocurrency by means of 80 separate transfers, the feds alleged.
And in a November 2025 message, she predicted she would face arduous time for her involvement with the group.
“Primarily based on my handed [sic] fundraising and posting Im [sic] gonna get put away for a number of life occasions,” she wrote including a laughing emoji, the feds claimed.
Washburn additionally took a selfie of herself and positioned the picture subsequent to the Hamas flag and two hand grenades, prosecutors claimed.
She is charged with one rely of trying to supply materials help and sources to a delegated overseas terrorist group. She faces as much as 20 years behind bars if convicted.
Washburn appeared in federal courtroom in Buffalo Wednesday the place she was held with out bail.
“This defendant, fueled by her self-described hate of Israel and Jewish individuals, went to nice lengths to try to supply monetary help to terrorist organizations that use violence to additional their agendas, together with the Palestine Islamic Jihad,” U.S. Lawyer Michael DiGiacomo for the Western District of New York stated in a press release.
“Regardless of her alleged makes an attempt, together with cryptic communications with a fighter concerned in violent assaults in an space hundreds of miles away, Catherine Washburn was stopped and so too had been her efforts to help violent extremism.”
Washburn’s felony protection lawyer didn’t instantly return a request for remark Wednesday afternoon.
