Abdul El-Sayed Confirms Sister-in-Law's 2016 Watchlist Lawsuit as Obama Plans Oct. 24 Campaign Stop
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Oct 18
Abdul El-Sayed Confirms Sister-in-Law's 2016 Watchlist Lawsuit as Obama Plans Oct. 24 Campaign Stop
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 18
Summary
Fox News questioning prompted El-Sayed to confirm that his sister-in-law, Mariam Jukaku, was a plaintiff in a 2016 lawsuit challenging her alleged placement on the federal Terrorism Screening Database.
El-Sayed said Jukaku "did nothing wrong," argued she was wrongly flagged and later removed, and blamed security infrastructure he linked to Republican rival Mike Rogers.
Court filings said Jukaku faced extra airport screening in 2012 and was believed removed from the watchlist by 2016, but a favorable ruling for plaintiffs was overturned on appeal in 2021; a separate damages case was dismissed in 2017.
The FBI said it neither confirms nor denies whether any individual is on the watchlist, and the lawsuit itself does not establish wrongdoing by Jukaku or El-Sayed.
The disclosure lands days before Barack Obama is due to campaign with El-Sayed in Michigan on Oct. 24, while Rogers has also called separate allegations about El-Sayed's family "disqualifying."