United States v. Wadi, 153 F.4th 465

Imad Eddin Wadi, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Syria, was convicted after a jury trial for three counts related to conspiring to support a designated foreign terrorist organization (Jabhat al-Nusra) and conspiracy to murder or maim abroad.
The convictions arose from an FBI sting operation involving an undercover agent posing as a Kuwaiti investor who would fund Wadi’s Colombia-based halal beef business in exchange for promised funding to al-Nusra, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.
Evidence showed Wadi knowingly and eagerly agreed to channel at least 5% of the investment ($9 million) to al-Nusra, fully aware the funds would support violent terrorist acts.
Wadi and his partner set up shell entities and foreign bank accounts to hide transactions and pressured for the investment to be delivered quickly.
At trial, Wadi was sentenced to 160 months’ imprisonment on each count, to run concurrently, and he appealed on several grounds relating to evidentiary and procedural rulings, jury instructions, and sufficiency of the evidence.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Exclusion of Defendant’s Son’s Testimony	Testimony not relevant or overly prejudicial; hearsay.	Needed to show financial hardship and support entrapment defense.	No abuse of discretion; exclusion affirmed.
Limitation of Cross-Examination of Confidential Source	No district court limitation shown in record.	Limitation undermined confrontation rights and credibility challenge.	No record of limitation; issue forfeited.
Sufficiency of Evidence for Conspiracy to Murder/Maim	Sufficient evidence Wadi conspired with knowledge of violent aims.	Claimed insufficient evidence of intent to murder/maim—argument debuted first on appeal.	No manifest miscarriage; conviction affirmed.
Denial of Combatant Immunity Instruction	Al-Nusra’s acts not justified under laws of war; immunity inapplicable.	Al-Nusra allegedly engaged in lawful combat; instruction required.	No abuse of discretion; instruction not given.
Jury Instruction on Terrorist Organization Designation	Jury properly instructed; designation is a legal fact.	Instruction usurped jury’s role and prejudiced case.	Instruction proper; claim lacks merit.
Denial of Dismissal/Sanctions re: Preservation of Evidence	No bad faith; loss of evidence not intentional or for improper purpose.	Failure to preserve evidence (cellphone) warranted dismissal or adverse inference instruction.	No abuse of discretion; no sanctions warranted.

Crane v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 683 (right to present a complete defense, subject to evidentiary limits)
United States v. Scheffer, 523 U.S. 303 (admissibility rules not arbitrary or unconstitutional)
Arizona v. Youngblood, 488 U.S. 51 (bad faith required for due process claim based on lost evidence)
United States v. Davis, 393 F.3d 540 (limits on cross-examination and impact on jury perception)
United States v. McDowell, 498 F.3d 308 (preservation of sufficiency arguments for appellate review)