United States v. Mohamud

Defendant was convicted of attempting to detonate a large bomb during the annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland, Oregon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2332a(a)(2)(A). The court concluded that the district court properly rejected defendant's entrapment defense as a matter of law where the court could not say that no reasonable jury could have concluded that defendant was predisposed to commit the charged offense. The court rejected defendant's alternative argument that the government overreached in its "sting" and violated due process. The court explained that, while the government's conduct in this case was quite aggressive at times, it fell short of a due process violation. The court also concluded that, under the circumstances of this case, the district court did not err in denying defendant's motion to suppress premised on the late supplemental Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA), 50 U.S.C. 1881a, notice. In this case, defendant cannot demonstrate prejudice and the district court found that the late disclosure was not due to prosecutorial misconduct. Finally, the court concluded that the application of section 702 of the FISA did not violate the Fourth Amendment under the particular facts of this case. The court held that there is no warrant required to intercept overseas foreign national's communications or to intercept U.S. person's communications incidentally. Furthermore, assuming that defendant had a Fourth Amendment right in the incidentally collected communications, the search at issue was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. Under the third-party doctrine, defendant had a reduced expectation of privacy in his communications to third parties. The applied targeting and minimization procedures adequately protected defendant's diminished privacy interest, in light of the government’s compelling interest in national security. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Mohamud" on Justia Law