“The First Step Act, a criminal justice reform law that passed through Congress with the support of both parties and was signed by former President Donald Trump in 2018, provided a means for Hammoud to request an early release, including through the compassionate release statute of the law.”
But will Hammoud have compassion on the victims of jihad violence? Don’t hold your breath.
“Terrorist financier released under First Step Act, says he ‘would be proud’ to fund terrorists again,” by Brandon Gillespie, Fox News, June 15, 2023:
A convicted terrorist financier serving a 30-year sentence in U.S. federal prison was recently released under the First Step Act after serving only 23 years, and said he “would be proud” to send money again to the same terrorist organization he was convicted of providing support to.
Mohamad Youssef Hammoud, a Lebanese national who illegally immigrated to the U.S. in 1992, was convicted in 2002 of providing material support to Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based militant group that the State Department designates a terrorist organization, among a number of other charges.
Hammoud was initially sentenced to 155 years in prison, but the punishment was later vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court. He was re-sentenced to 30 years in 2011.
The First Step Act, a criminal justice reform law that passed through Congress with the support of both parties and was signed by former President Donald Trump in 2018, provided a means for Hammoud to request an early release, including through the compassionate release statute of the law.
Despite the Biden administration’s opposition to an early release of Hammoud on the grounds of compassionate release, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina granted the request on the grounds of “a disparity between his sentence and other sentences for comparable conduct,” and “the disproportionally in his sentence caused by the application of the ‘terrorism enhancement.'”…
He arrived in Beirut on Wednesday to celebrations with friends and family, according to Alarabiya News, a Saudi-based outlet….
“I would be proud to send money to Hezbollah, and I could say I sent money to Hezbollah. But in 1999… I did not send a penny to Lebanon,” Hammoud said in one video shared by Alarabiya. In the video, he can be seen sitting in front of a portrait of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, and late-Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2020….
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I think it’s interesting that Gov Ron DeSantis is attacking President Trump for the “First Step Act”: it’ll be interesting to see what happens in those debates, and where do other candidates, like Pence, Ramaswamy et al fall in?
tgusa says
“The First Step Act” Call it what it is in many cases, Second Chance Act. I subscribe to the old adage, do the crime, do the time. Right when we have seen crime explode and get out of jail free cards being distributed like free candy. Damn is America dumb.