El-Sayed Confirms Relative’s Watchlist Lawsuit Before Obama Visit

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said Saturday night that his sister-in-law was part of a federal lawsuit involving the government’s terrorist watchlist, a disclosure that surfaced just before former President Barack Obama is set to appear with him on the campaign trail in Michigan.

El-Sayed addressed the issue after Fox News senior correspondent Mike Tobin asked him about court records naming his sister-in-law, Mariam Jukaku, as a plaintiff in a 2016 case challenging her alleged inclusion in the federal Terrorism Screening Database, often referred to as the terrorist watchlist. When Tobin asked whether the lawsuit documentation showed that Jukaku had been placed on the list, El-Sayed replied, “Yeah.”

He then defended her and argued that she had done nothing improper. El-Sayed said she had been swept up by the system unfairly, later sued, and was removed. He also used the exchange to criticize Republican Senate opponent Mike Rogers, saying the broader security framework treated people as suspect before they had a chance to clear their names, especially those with certain names.

The timing is politically notable because Obama is scheduled to campaign alongside El-Sayed in Michigan on Oct. 24, ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm election. The issue also arrives amid a heated Senate contest in which personal attacks and disputes over foreign policy, national security, and religion have already played a visible role.

What the lawsuit said

According to the 2016 complaint, Jukaku was subjected to extra airport screening in 2012 and said she was never told why she had been flagged. The filing stated that she was believed to have been removed from the watchlist by 2016. While El-Sayed said she “sued and got off,” the legal history is more complicated than that brief description suggests.

A federal appeals court overturned a ruling that had favored the plaintiffs in 2021. In addition, a separate lawsuit seeking damages was dismissed in 2017. Those outcomes undercut any simple claim that the litigation ended in a clear-cut legal victory, even though the original complaint said Jukaku was believed to have been removed from the database.

The FBI, for its part, told Fox News that it does not confirm or deny whether any individual is included in the Terrorist Screening Dataset. The agency said that longstanding U.S. government policy is to neither confirm nor deny a person’s watchlist status.

Campaign fallout

The exchange adds another layer to the scrutiny surrounding El-Sayed’s campaign. It follows separate allegations concerning purported Muslim Brotherhood ties within his family, claims his campaign has rejected as “racist and untrue.” On Saturday, Rogers described those allegations as “disqualifying.”

At the same time, the watchlist lawsuit itself does not establish wrongdoing by either Jukaku or El-Sayed. The available facts show that Jukaku challenged her alleged placement through the courts and that the legal proceedings produced mixed outcomes over several years.

For voters, the episode is likely to sharpen existing debates about civil liberties, national security policy, and the role of family controversies in a closely watched Senate race. With Obama’s appearance approaching, the matter may draw additional attention, but the core facts remain narrow: El-Sayed acknowledged his sister-in-law’s involvement in the lawsuit, defended her conduct, and sought to frame the case as an example of an unfair watchlist system rather than evidence of misconduct.