El-Sayed Acknowledges Sister-in-Law’s Watchlist Lawsuit

Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed admitted on Saturday that his sister-in-law, Mariam Jukaku, was part of a federal lawsuit regarding the terrorist watchlist during the Obama administration. This acknowledgment comes just days before former President Barack Obama is set to campaign with him.

During an interview with Fox News senior correspondent Mike Tobin, El-Sayed was asked about court documents that listed Jukaku as a plaintiff in a 2016 lawsuit that challenged her inclusion on the federal Terrorism Screening Database, commonly referred to as the terrorist watchlist.

Tobin pressed, “There’s reporting in a lawsuit that now backs it up. And documentation with the lawsuit that Mariam Jukaku, who’s your sister-in-law, that she was on the terrorist watch list?” El-Sayed responded affirmatively.

In defending his sister-in-law, El-Sayed asserted that she had committed no wrongdoing, shifting focus to his Republican rival, Mike Rogers. “She did nothing wrong and was captured on that and then sued and got off,” he stated. He criticized a system that, he argued, treats individuals as guilty until proven innocent based merely on their names—an implication directed at the infrastructure set by Rogers.

This exchange unfolds as Obama prepares to campaign alongside El-Sayed in Michigan on October 24, in advance of the midterm elections on November 3.

According to the 2016 complaint, Jukaku underwent extensive airport screening in 2012 and claimed she was never informed of the reasons for her being flagged. By 2016, it was reported that she was no longer on the watchlist.

El-Sayed maintained that she had successfully sued in the past, although a federal appeals court overturned a favorable ruling for the plaintiffs in 2021, and another lawsuit for damages was dismissed in 2017.

The FBI has a policy of neither confirming nor denying if individuals are on the watchlist. They communicated this stance to Fox News, reiterating that it is U.S. government policy to remain silent on an individual’s status in the Terrorist Screening Dataset.

This conversation also followed separate accusations regarding alleged Muslim Brotherhood ties within El-Sayed’s family, which his campaign dismissed as “racist and untrue.” Rogers labeled these allegations as “disqualifying” during a recent statement.

Notably, this lawsuit does not imply any wrongdoing on the part of Jukaku or El-Sayed.