Citations
- 151 F. Supp. 3d 116
Full opinion text
MEMORANDUM OPINION
CHRISTOPHER R. COOPER, United States District Judge
On September 11 and 12, 2012, a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya was attacked, resulting in' the deaths of four Americans, including United States Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens. In an eighteen-count superseding indictment, a grand jury charged Defendant Ahmed Salim Faraj Abu' Khatallah with orchestrating and participating in the attack. Abu Khatallah has moved to dismiss all but one of the counts. He alleges that most of the statutes he is charged with violating cannot be . applied to conduct undertaken outside of the United States, .that one of them is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, • and. that the two facilities destroyed in the attack do not meet the applicable statutory definitions of “federal facilities” or “U.S. property.” For the' rea^ sons discussed below, the Court will deny the motions as to all but two of the «ounts challenged. The Court will, by separate order, request supplemental briefing with respect to those counts.
I. Factual and Procedural -Back* ground
During the civil war that erupted in Libya in early 2011, the rebel group seeking to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi, the Transitional National Council (“TNC”), established its base of operations in the city of Benghazi. On February 25; 2011,-the U.S. Department of State evacuated American personnel from Libya and suspended its operations at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli. Less than two months later, the State Department reestablished its presence in the country through the arrival in Benghazi of U.S. Special Envoy J. Christopher Stevens. According to the State Department’s official report on the Benghazi attack, on June 21, 2011, Stevens moved into what would become a U.S, Special Mission compound. See Accountability Review Bd., U.S. Dep’t of State, Benghazi Attack Report 14 (Unclassified) (2012), http;//www. state.gov/documents/organization/202446. pdf (“State Department Report”). The compound was eventually comprised of “a diplomatic outpost, known'as the U.S. Special Mission,” where a contingent of U.S. State Department personnel were based; and a second “facility ..., known,as the; Annex,” where a contingent of other U.S. personnel were based. Indictment ¶¶ 5-6.-
The United States officially recognized the TNC as Libya’s governing authority the following month, on July 15, 2011, and Gaddafi was ousted from power only- a few weeks later. The U.S. Embassy in Tripoli reopened with a temporary-duty staff in September 2011. Stevens, continued as Special Envoy to the TNC in Benghazi until he left the country on November 17, 2011. The Special Envoy position was not filled after Stevens’s departure, but he returned to Libya as Ambassador in May 2012, operating out of the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli. According to the State Department Report, “2012 saw an overall deterioration of the security environment in Benghazi, as highlighted by a series of security incidents involving the Special Mission, .international organizations, non-governmental organizations ..., and third-country nationals and diplomats.” Id. at 15; see also id. at 15-16.
Ambassador Stevens traveled to Benghazi to visit the Mission compound on September 10, 2012. Stationed at the compound and present during the Ambassador’s visit were Information Management Officer Sean Patrick Smith; Assistant Regional Security Officer Scott Wickland; Assistant Regional Officer David Ubben; Security Officers Tyrone Snowden Woods and Glen Anthony Doherty; and a Security Officer the Indictment refers to only as “Mark G.” See Indictment ¶ 16; State Dep’t Report 18.
The Mission and Annex were attacked on September 11 and 12, 2012. In two phases beginning on the evening of September 11 and lasting-into the morning of September 12, armed intruders deployed small-arms and machine-gun fire, rocket-propelled grenades, and mortars- at both facilities. See- State Dep’t Report 4. Buildings on the compound burned, and the fire spread to the Mission building, housing Ambassador Stevens during his stay. Ambassador Stevens, Smith, Woods, and Do-herty were killed in the attacks.
On July 15, 2013, a criminal complaint and arrest warrant issued for Abu Khatal-lah, whom the Department of Justice suspected of conspiring to commit and participating in the attack. Just under one year later, on June 16, 2014, a team of U.S. special military forces captured Abu Kha-tallah south of Benghazi. He was then transported to the United States aboard a Navy ship, the USS New York. According to news sources, Libya condemned the capture, calling for Abu Khatallah’s return to Libya for trial. See Ulf Laessing & Ahmed Elumanii, Libya Condemns U.S. Arrest of Benghazi Suspect, Demands His Return; Reuters (June 18, 2014, 10:11 AM), http://www.reuters.com/artiele/2014/ 06/18/us-libya-securityidUSKBN0ETlKQ 20140618#TGChTGE0utFtJmxL.97.
A grand jury sitting in Washington, D.C. issued an initial indictment against Abu Khatallah within two weeks, and a superseding indictment approximately four months' later, on October 14, 2014. The Superseding Indictment (“Indictment”) identifies the Defendant as Ahmed Salim Faraj Abu Khatallah, also known as Ahmed Abu Khatallah, Ahmed Mukatallah, Ahmed Bukatallah, and “Sheik,” and describes him as having been “the commander of Ubaydah Bin Jarrah ,, an Islamist extremist militia in Benghazi, which had the goal of establishing Sharia law in Libya,” until that group merged in 2011 with Ansar al-Sharia, “another Islamist extremist group -in Libya with the same goal,” and Abu Khatallah became the new group’s “Benghazi-based leader.” Indictment ¶ 9. The Indictment notes that Abu Khatallah’s first entry into the' United States was in the District of Columbia.' Id.
The eighteen-count Indictment charges Abu Khatallah with providing and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, resulting in death, under 18 U.S.C. § 2339A (Counts One and Two); murder of an internationally protected person under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1116 and 1111 (Count Three); three counts of murder of an officer and employee of the United States under 18 U.S.C. '§§ 1114 'and 1111 (Counts Four through Six); three counts of attempted murder of an officer and employee of the United States under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1114 and 1-113 (Counts Seven through' Nine); four counts of killing a person in the course of an attack on a federal facility involving use of a firearm and a dangerous weapon under 18 U.S.C. §§ 930(c) and 1111 (Counts Ten through Thirteen); two counts of maliciously damaging and destroying U.S. property by means of , fire and an explosive, causing death, under 18 U.S.C. § 844(f)(1) and (3) (Counts Fourteen and Fifteen); two counts of maliciously destroying and injuring dwellings and property and placing lives in jeopardy within the special maritime -and territorial jurisdiction of the United States under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1363 and 7 (Counts Sixteen and Seventeen); and using, carrying, brandishing, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) (Count Eighteen).
Abu Khatallah has filed a series of motions to dismiss all but Count Three of the Indictment. He challenges Counts One and Two on the ground that 18 U.S.C. § 2339A is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad; Counts Four through Eighteen in whole, and One and Two in part, on the ground that the statutes under which he is charged in those counts do not apply ex-traterritorially; and Counts Ten through Fifteen on the ground that the Mission and Annex were not “federal facilities” -under 18■U.S.C. § 930(g)(1) or “U.S. property” under 18 U.S.C. § 844(f). The Court held a hearing on these'motions on October 16, 2015, with Abu Khatallah present.
The Court will deny Abu Khatallah’s motions as to Counts One and Two, Four through Fifteen, and'Eighteen. The Court will reserve' ruling on his motion as to Counts Sixteen and Seventeen, and will request supplemental briefing from the parties on certain questions pertinent to those counts by separate order.
II. Legal Standard
A criminal defendant “may" raise by pretrial motion any defense, objection, or request that the court can determine without a trial on the merits.” Fed. R. Crim. P. 12(b)(1). Pretrial' motions may challenge' “a defect in the indictment or information,” as long as “the basis for the motion is then reasonably available-and the motion can be determined without a trial on the merits.” Fed. R. Crim. P. 12(b)(3)(B). “ ‘Because a court’s use[ ] [of] its supervisory power'to dismiss an indictment ..directly encroaches "upon the fundamental role of the grand jury,’ dismissal is granted only in unusual circumstances.” United States v. Ballestas, 795 F.3d 138, 148 (D.C.Cir.2015) (quoting Whitehouse v. U.S. Dist. Court, 53 F.3d 1349, 1360 (1st Cir.1995)). An indictment “only need contain ‘a plain, concise, and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged,’” id. at 149, in order “to inform the defendant of the nature of the accusation against him,” id. at 148-49 (quoting United States v. Hitt, 249 F.3d 1010, 1016 (D.C.Cir.2001)) (internal quotation marks omitted). “When considering a motion to dismiss an indictment, a court assumes the truth of those factual allegations.” Id. at 149.
III. Analysis
A. Motion To Dismiss Counts One, Two, and Four Through Eighteen for Lack of Extraterritoriality,
Abu Khatallah has moved to dismiss all but Count Three of the eighteen-count Indictment on the ground that most of the statutes he is charged with violating do not apply> to his actions in Libya as a matter of' statutory construction. Recent Supreme Court decisions have, indeed sharply limited the extraterritorial application of federal statutes. Unless Congress clearly intended as much, , the Court has- said, federal statutes do not apply abroad. But these restrictive expressions have all appeared in civil cases. An almost century-old case, United States v. Bowman, 260 U.S. 94, 43 S.Ct. 39, 67 L.Ed. 149 (1922) — which the Supreme Court has never repudiated — appears to leave significantly more room for the extraterritorial application of criminal statutes, even though recent decisions explicitly say that the same presumption against éxtraferri-toriality applies to all cases. Abu Khatal-lah’s arguments about the charged offenses’ geographic reach require , this Court to reconcile and synthesize these increasingly divergent strands of case law. The D.C, Circuit has attempted just such a harmonization, and this Court must follow its mode of analysis.
1. Generally Applicable Principles ■ of Extraterritoriality.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly — and quite recently — insisted that “[w]hen a statute gives no clear indication of an extraterritorial application, it has none.” Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., — U.S. -, 133 S.Ct. 1659, 1664, 185 L.Ed,2d 671 (2013) ’(quoting Morrison v. Nat’l Australia Bank Ltd., 561 U.S. 247, 130 S.Ct. 2869, 2878, 177 L.Ed.2d 535 (2010)). Phrased slightly differently, “there must be present the affirmative intention of the Congress clearly expressed,” Id. (quoting Benz v. Compania Naviera Hidalgo, 353 U.S. 138, 147, 77 S.Ct. 699, 1 L.Ed.2d 709 (1957)). “[Congressional'silence” on "extraterritoriality therefore “means no extraterritorial application1,” Morrison, 130 S.Ct. at 2881, as does a merely “plausible” showing of intended extraterritorial application, EEOC v. Arabian American Oil Co., 499 U.S. 244, 250, 111 S.Ct. 1227, 113 L.Ed.2d 274 (1991) (“Aramco”). Phrases like “clear indication” and “convincing indication,” Small v. United States, 544 U.S. 385, 391, 125 S.Ct. 1752, 161 L.Ed.2d 651 (2005), suggest that the required quantum of proof is significantly more than a preponderance. And the burden of making the necessary affirmative showing is on the party seeking to apply a statute extraterritorially; Aramco, 499 U.S. at 250, 111 S.Ct. 1227. Important^ ly, the Supreme Court has instructed courts to “apply the-presumption in. all cases” in which an extraterritorial offense is alleged. Morrison, 130 S.Ct. at 2881 (emphasis added).
The presumption against extraterritoriality is a “canon of construction ... rather than a limit upon Congress’s power to legislate.” Morrison, 130 S.Ct. at 2877. The canon rests on a defeasible assumption about congressional intent — that “Congress ordinarily legislates with respect to domestic, not foreign matters.” Id. This assumption may or may not be factually correct in individual cases. But the presumption is meant to relieve judges from having to “guess anew in each case” by “divining what Congress would have wanted.if it had thought of the situation before the court,” Id. at 2881. Congress is on notice that courts apply the presumption across the board, which ensures a “stable background against which Congress can legislate with predictable effects.” Id. Regardless of what Congress actually intends, the predictable effect of not clearly authorizing extraterritorial application will be no extraterritorial application. Of course, Congress remains free to modify statutes that courts have construed not to apply abroad (as it has done before). Id. at 2883 n. 8. ,
Aside from administrability and predictability concerns, the presumption against extraterritoriality is also rooted in ideas of institutional competence and the separation of powers. Its robust application “protects] against unintended clashes between our laws and those of other nations which could result in international discord.” Kiobel, 133 S.Ct. at 1664 (quoting Aramco, 499 U.S. at 248, 111 S.Ct. 1227). Displacement of the presumption means that aliens can be sued (or prosecuted) and tried in American courts for acts committed in their home countries, even if their acts were perfectly lawful there. The political branches .alone are equipped to make “such an important policy decision where the possibilities of international discord are so evident.” Id. (quoting Benz, 353 U.S. at 147, 77 S.Ct. 699), The presumption against extraterritoriality, therefore precludes judges from inferentially triggering such “significant foreign policy implications” in the absence of deliberate congressional choice. Id. at 1665. But whether this concern permeates any individual case is irrelevant: The “presumption applies regardless of whether there is a. risk of conflict between the American statute and a foreign law.” Morrison, 130 S.Ct. at 2877-78.
’ So strong is the presumption, the Supreme Court has said, that geographically unbounded terms like “every” and “any” fail to ■ rebut it. Kiobel, 133 S.Ct. at 1665; Small, 544 U.S. at 388, 125 S.Ct. 1752; Foley Bros, v. Filardo, 336 U.S. 281, 287, 69 S.Ct. 575, 93 L.Ed. 680 (1949). Even statutory definitions of commerce that specifically refer to “foreign commerce” do not “definitely disclose an intention to give ... extraterritorial effect.” Aramco, 499 U.S. at 251, 111 S.Ct. 1227. Perhaps most strikingly, Kiobel very recently held that the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”) “does not imply extraterritorial reach” even though it permits actions by “alien[s]” for “violation[s] of the law of nations.” Kiobel, 133 S.Ct. at 1663, 1665. That was true even though -one such violation (piracy) “typically occurs ... beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the (United States.” Id. at 1667. The two other paradigmatic law-of-nations violations contemplated by the ATS — “violation of- safe conducts” and “infringement of the rights of ambassadors,” id. at 1666 — could'‘easily occur abroad and are creatures of international relations. Yet they, too, fail to displace the presumption against extraterritoriality. Id.
The Supreme Court has slightly diluted the presumption’s potency by conceding that it is “not ... a ‘clear statement rule.’ ” Morrison, 130 S.Ct. at 2883. A statute need not say “this law applies abroad”; “[a]ssuredly context can be consulted as well.” Id.; see also Small, 544 U.S. at 391, 125 S.Ct. 1752 (recognizing “statutory language, context, ; history, or purpose” as proper tools for rebutting the presumption); Foley, 336 U.S. at 286, 69 S.Ct. 575 (concluding that a statute’s legislative history revealed a “concern with domestic labor conditions”). Any indication of congressional intent is very likely material, regardless of its source. Yet context, purpose, legislative history, and statutory structure are unavailing unless they amount to a “clear indication” of intended extraterritoriality. Kiobel, 133 S.Ct. at 1664. According to the Supreme Court, this sometimes-multifaceted inquiry is neither “complex” nor “unpredictable in application.” Morrison, 130 S.Ct. at 2878. And the D.C. Circuit very recently explained that contextual evidence tending to displace the presumption must be traceable to the statutory text. See Validus Reinsurance, Ltd. v. United States, 786 F.3d 1039, 1047 (D.C.Cir.2015) (“[Cjourts must- find clear and independent textual support— rather than relying on mere inference — to justify the nature and extent of each statutory application abroad.”) (quoting Keller Found./Case Found. v. Tracy, 696 F.3d 835, 845 (9th Cir.2012)).
2, Harmonizing the Apparent Civil/Criminal Divide ,
As 'detailed above, the 'modern Supreme Court has instructed lower courts to apply the presumption- “in all cases.” Morrison, 130 S.Ct. at 2881, Such insistence on across-the-board, uniformity seems to foreclose doctrinal tests that would allow the presumption to be more easily rebutted in certain kinds of cases. Nonetheless, a nearly century-old chestnut of extraterritoriality doctrine — United States v. Bowman, 260 U.S. 94, 43 S.Ct. 39, 67 L.Ed. 149 (1922)— sits uneasily with Aramco, Morrison, and Kiobel. In practice, Bowman requires a lesser evidentiary showing of congressional intent to permit the extraterritorial application of certain kinds of federal criminal statutes. Its application may well require judges to “guess anew in each case,” Morrison, 130 S.Ct. at 2881, often under a shroud of empirical uncertainty. Yet the Supreme Court -has not yet attempted to reconcile the stability-serving values .un-dergirding recent civil decisions like Morrison and Kiobel with the reality that Bowman is “not easy to administer.” Id. at 2879. Because Bowman remains binding on the lower courts, this Court must assume that satisfying Bowman is- one way of “clear[lyj indicating]” a federal statute’s extraterritorial reach, id. at 2878 — even if Bowman -itself requires no “affirmative” evidence of a deliberate congressional decision to permit overseas applications. Kiobel, 133 S.Ct. at 1664.
a. The Facts and Holding of United States v. Bowman
The 'defendants in Bowman had allegedly conspired to defraud the Emergency Fleet Corporation — all of whose stock was owned by the United States — on board a ship approaching Brazil. Bowman, 260 U.S. at 95, 43 S.Ct. 39. The crux of the indictment was that the defendants 'had made (and conspired to make) a “false or fraudulent claim” against a “corporation in which the United States of America is a stockholder.” Id. at 96, 100, 43 S.Ct. 39 n.l. Neither party disputed that-all- relevant actions' had occurred outside American soil. If Bowman had never been decided, faithful application of recent Supreme Court precedents might well dictate a finding of no ’extraterritoriality on these facts alone. For the inere statutory reference to “any corporation in which the’ United States of America is a! stockholder," id at 100 n. 6, 43 S.Ct. 39, would not rebut the presumption any more than statutory lan-guag¿ encompassing “every contract,” “any court,” “any person,” or “any civil action.” Foley Bros., 336 U.S. at 287, 69 S.Ct. 575; Small, 544 U.S. at 387, 125 S.Ct. 1752; Morrison, 130 S.Ct. at 2881; Kiobel, 133 S.Ct. at 1665.
, The Bowman Court took a: starkly different approach, however. It began its analysis by observing that “the necessary locus [of proscribed activity], when not specially defined, depends upon the purpose of Congress as evinced by the description and nature of the crime.” Id. at 97, 43 S.Ct. 39. Bowman postulated two broad types of crimes for these purposes. First were “[c]rimes against private individuals or their property, like assaults, murder, burglary, larceny, robbery; arson, embezzlement and frauds Of all kinds.” Id. at 98, 43 S.Ct. 39. These offenses principally “affect the peace and good order of the community)” and so must seemingly be committed within the political community that they disturb. Id' If Congress intends to punish such crimes ejctraterritorially, “it is natural for [it] to say so in the statute, and failure to do so will negative the purpose of Congress in this regard.” Id.--
But a different rule of construction applies to “criminal statutes which are, as á class, not -logically dependent on their -locality- for. the .Government’s jurisdiction, but are enacted because of the right of the Government to defend itself against obstruction, or fraud wherever perpetrated.” Id. For these offenses, “to limit their locus to'the; strictly territorial jurisdiction would be greatly to curtail the scope, and usefulness of the statute and leave open a large immunity for frauds as easily committed by citizens on the high seas .and in foreign countries as at home.” Id. Congress “has not thought it necessary” to explicitly enable their overseas application,-instead “allowing] it to be inferred from the nature of the offense.” Id.
The Bowman Court held that the charged crime fell comfortably within this second category. The statute had been amended in 1918 to encompass false claims harmful to corporations in which the United States owned stock. Id. at 101, 43 S.Ct. 39. The Court found that this provision “was evidently intended to protect the Emergency Fleet Corporation,” which was “expected to engage in, and, did engage in, a most extensive ocean transportation business” that serviced “every great port of the world open during [World War I].” Id. at 101-02, 43 S.Ct. 39. Two key factors informed the Court’s decision: that Congress had sought to stifle “frauds upon the Government,” and — because of background assumptions about the Emergency Fleet Corporation's worldwide business — that those frauds were likely, to occur “on the high seas and in foreign ports and beyond the land jurisdiction of the United States.” Id.
Bowman also supplemented its holding (if only in dictum) with a list of six other federal crimes whose nature commanded an inference of extraterritorial application. Because Bowman has been entirely absent from the Supreme Court’s modern extraterritoriality decisions, these six • crimes are important data points for understanding Bowman’s underlying rationale. The Court noted that all six appeared)in a chapter of the U.S. Code entitled “Offenses against the operations of the Government,” id at 98-99, 43 S.Ct. 39; each crime had evidently been designed to forestall some tangible or intangible harm to the U.S; Government. In asserting ■ that each of the following offenses would apply extraterritoriality, the Court also commented on the statutes’ anticipated geographic reach:
(1) A consul’s knowingly certifying a false invoice. “Clearly the locus of ” this crime as intended by Congress is in a foreign country____” Id'. at 99, 43 S.Ct. 39.
(2) Forging or altering a ship’s-papers. “The natural inference from the character of the offense is that the sea would be a probable place for its :s commission.” Id.
(3) Enticing desertions from the naval service. Congress must have “intended] by this to indude such enticing done aboard ship on the high seas or in a foreign port, where it would be most likely to be'done.” Id.
(4) Bribing an officer of the U.S,, civil, military, or naval service to violate his duty or to aid in committing a fraud on the United States.' The Court concluded that it would “hard- • ly [be] reasonable to construe-..this not to include, offenses” directed at consuls, ambassadors, and military officers “in a foreign country or on the high seas.” Id.
(5) Defrauding the United States 'in the disposition of property captured as prize. “This would naturally often occur at sea, and Congress could not have meant to confíne it to the land of the United States.” Id.
(6)Stealing or embezzling ¿property of the United States furnished or intended to be used for military or naval service. “It would hardly be reasonable to hold that” Congress did not intend to punish offenses against-U.S. military property located “in foreign countries, in foreign ports or on the high seas.” Id at 100, 43 S.Ct. 39.
In sum, for statutes whose geographic reach is ambiguous, satisfying Bowman first requires proof that a criminal offense directly harms the U.S. Government. Bowman also suggested that the presumption against extraterritoriality cannot be rebutted inferentiahy unless the enacting Congress very likely envisioned, and can be assumed to have authorized, a considerable number of extraterritorial applications. Yet whether Bowman’s preconditions are satisfied is hardly a mechanical inquiry. Bowman left open the key question of how many foreseeable extraterritorial applications are necessary to warrant the inference that Congress “clearly” intended to allow prosecutions for acts occurring overseas. Its treatment of two statutory examples suggested that the number of expected extraterritorial offenses must outweigh domestic ones — that the former must be “probable” or “most likely.” Id. at 99, 43 S.Ct. 39. But Bowman’s fifth example pointed toward a looser “locus” test for extraterritoriality — that the crime “would naturally often occur” abroad. Id. The D.C. Circuit’s resolution of this issue in favor of the latter- formulation must guide this Court’s analysis of Abu Khatallah’s extraterritoriality challenges., ■
b. The D.C. Circuit’s Application of Bowman: United States v. Delgado-Garcia
Along with other lower courts, the D.C. Circuit -has sought to reconcile - modern extraterritoriality doctrine’s across-the-board, rule-like rigor with the more flexible and individualized inquiry required in criminal cases by Bowman. Its reading of Bowman ■ precludes two possible approaches to this case: (1) to proceed as if the Supreme Court has overruled 'Bowman sub sílentió and apply only the restrictive test outlined in Aramco, Morrison, and Kiobel; or (2) to assume that federal crimes designed to prevent harm to the U.S. Government necessarily satisfy Bowman (and so apply extraterritorially) absent a clear indication'to 'the contrary.
The defendants in United States v. Delgado-Garcia, 374 F.3d 1337, 1339 (D.C.Cir. 2004), were charged with .(in the court’s words) “conspiring to induce aliens illegally to enter the United States” and “attempting to bring illegal aliens into the United States,” in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a). All relevant conduct occurred outside the United States. Id. The defendants moved to dismiss the indictment, claiming that § 1324(a) does not apply ex-traterritorially because the statute is silent on its geographic reach. The Delgado-Garcia court disagreed, citing “specific textual evidence” and “contextual factors” as affirmative evidence that Congress intended for § 1324(a) offenses to be prosecutable regardless of where they might occur. Id. at 1344-45. The court situated its analysis firmly within the framework established by Bowman, deeming it a “persuasive precedent” for the Government’s position. See id. at 1346. Abu Khatallah therefore misses the mark in asking this Court to eschew Bowman on the theory that it “did not discuss the presumption against extraterritoriality which has since become the cornerstone of all jurisdictional analyses.” Def.’s Reply Supp. Mot. Dismiss (“Reply”), ECF No. 111, 2 n.1.
' ‘ But Delgado-Garcia also forecloses the expansive reading of Bowman espoused by the Government at -the oral hearing on Abu Khatallah’s motions — that any federal criminal statute designed to prevent harm to the U.S. Government necessarily applies abroad absent an affirmative indication of congressional intent to cabin its reach. Hearing Prelim. Tr. 30. According to Delgado-Garcia, the generally worded statute at issue in Bowman applied abroad “because , the Emergency Fleet Corporation ... ‘was expected to engage in, and did engage in, a most extensive ocean transportation business.’ ” Delgado-Garcia, 374 F.3d at 1346 (emphasis added); see also id. (“Because -of this expectation, the' Court reasoned, many persons wio commit the crime of defrauding a U.S. corporation would do so overseas, and therefore the statute had extraterritorial- application.” (emphasis added)).
The Government’s reading of Bowman echoes Judge Rogers’s dissenting opinion in Delgado-Garcia. She understood Bowman to mean.that when Congress “protects] the United States government from harm,” it.generally must be assumed to have done-so “irrespective of [the harm’s] origin,” Id. at 1355 (Rogers, J„ dissenting). For such crimes, in other words, “it is obvious that in declaring them to be crimes Congress intends to prohibit them everywhere.” Id. at 1354. The majority rejected this line of reasoning, concluding that it “is for Congress, not this Court,” to decide- whether particular acts would “harm the United States government even if [they were] completed abroad.” Id. at 1346 (majority opinion) (alteration in original) (quoting id at 1355 (Rogers, J., dissenting)). -The Delgado-Garcia majority offered a different explanation of what it means for federal criminal offenses to be “not logically dependent on their Ideality” — that they “have many obvious extraterritorial applications.” Id. at 1346-47.
Delgado-Garcia held that both § 1324(a) crimes charged in the indictment met this standard (and thus applied extraterritorially). After explaining that the statute satisfied Bowman’s “harm” prong because it sought to protect the integrity of U.S, borders, id. at 1345, the court shiftpd to a lengthy discussion of Bowman’s “locus” element. Reasoning purely from the text and structure of § 1324(a), the court found that the crimes of attempting to bring an unauthorized alien into the United States and conspiring to encourage or induce illegal immigration both “applie[d] to much extraterritorial conduct.” Id. at 1347. First, because “[bjringing’ someone suggests ... physical proximity” to the person sought to be brought, “many [failed] attempts to bring someone into the United States will occur outside the United States.” Id. And second,- the court reasoned that it would be “much easier” to conspire to encourage or induce illegal immigration “outside- the United States, in proximity to those who carry out the plot.” Id. at 1348. The conspiracy provision therefore “contemplates application. to much extraterritorial conduct.” Id.
In .this Circuit, then, Bowman is satisfied when (1) a federal criminal
offense ■ directly harms the U.S. Government, and (2) enough foreseeable overseas applications existed at the time of a statute’s enactment (or most recent amendment) to warrant the inference that Congress both contemplated and ■ authorized prosecutions for extraterritorial acts. Delgado-Garcia’s “locus” inquiry specifically asks whether a statute “ha[s] many obvious extraterritorial applications,” id. at 1347, or whether offenders “will often be outside the United States,” id. As long as such a likelihood existed when the statute was passed — whether because of the nature of the offense (as in Delgado-Garcia), contingent facts about the United States’s presence abroad, or some combination thereof — courts may properly infer a congressional intent to permit extraterritorial uses. This process yields the necessary “clear indication of an extraterritorial application.” Morrison, 130 S.Ct. at 2878. It is not enough, as the Government suggests, that a statute seek to protect U.S. interests that “lie, or may very well lie, outside the United States.” Govt's Opp’n Def.’s Mot. Dismiss, ECF No. 101 (“Opp’n”) 7. Nor may judges attempt to divine “what Congress would have wanted if it had thought of the situation before the court.” Morrison, 130, S.Ct. at 2881. With these principles in mind, the .Court now turns to Abu Khatallah’s individual statutory challenges.
3. Abu Khatallah’s Statutory Challenges
Abu Khatallah concedes that Congress intended' the offense charged ih Count Three (18 U.S.C. § 1116, murder of an internationally protected person) to apply extraterritorially. • But he has moved to dismiss Counts Four through Eighteen in their entirety, and Counts One and Two insofar as they charge him with providing material support, for any crime other than killing an internationally protected person: In all, Abu Khatallah challenges the extraterritorial application of six distinct crimes or sets of associated crimes. In a separate order, the Court will request supplemental ' briefing on one of them (18 U.S.C. § 1363, criminalizing certain actions within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States). It will consider Abu Khatallah’s five other extraterritoriality challenges in turn.
a. 18 U.S.C. § 1114: Murdér and Attempted Murder of Officers and Employees of the United States
Counts Four through Six charge Abu Khatallah with murder in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1114; counts Seven through Nine charge him with attempted murder in violation of § 1114. That statute reads, in full:
Whoever kills or attempts to'‘kill any officer or employee of the United States or of any agency in 'any branch of the United States Government (including any member of the uniformed services) while such officer or employee is engaged in or on account of the performance of official duties, or any , person assisting such an officer or employee in the performance of such duties or on account of that assistance, shall be punished—
(1) in the case, of murder, as provided under section 1111;
(2) in the case of manslaughter, as provided under section 1112; or
(3)in the case of attempted murder or manslaughter, as provided in section 1113. ■ >
Section 1114 does not explicitly reference extraterritorial application, so such prosecutions must be justified by Bowman, if at all. Thé Court does not doubt — nor does Ábu 'Khatallah contest — that § 1114 targets a form of harm suffered directly by the U.S. government. Under Delgado-Garda, then, just one question remains: Did § 1114 “have many obvious extraterritorial applications” when it was enacted (or most recently amended)t
Cautious of its institutional limitations in resolving an issue of this nature, the Court answers affirmatively. The parties have not informed the Court as to when § 1114 was either - originally enacted or last amended. That law appears to have remained in its current form since being amended- as part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-132,.'§ 727(a), 110 Stat. 1214. -Nor have the parlies provided concrete information on the number of U.S. officers and employees working and residing abroad, either in 1996 or today. The Government asserts (though without substantiation) that “[t]he United States government has over one hundred ■ thousand officers and employees stationed abroad.”. Opp’n 8. Abu Khatallah has not questioned this estimate. Because a purely territorial statute cannot become extraterritorial as a result of changing conditions — only a deliberate congressional choice can rebut,the presumption — present-day figures matter only insofar as they indirectly reflect what conditions either obtained when a statute was passed or were understood to be likely to exist in'the future.
' Here, the Court is satisfied that § 1114 “ha[d] many obvious extraterritorial applications” when the law Was last amended in 1996 — enough to have put Congress on notice of the issue of extraterritoriality and to permit an inference under Bowman that the law- was intended to reach conduct undertaken outside the United States. It is widely known that then, as now,_ large numbers of U.S. diplomats and Foreign Service Officers, military servicemembers, members of the intelligence community, and other government personnel served the United States’s interests abroad.. Executive and legislative officials (and their staff) also frequently traveled — and obviously still do — outside the United States in the course of performing their official duties. See also United States v. Al Kassar, 660 F.3d 108, 118 (2d Cir.2011) (“[A] significant number of [U.S.] employees perform their duties outside U.S. territory.”). Such U.S. employees and .officials could obviously be killed while engaging in or on account of performing their official duties. Under Delgado-Garcia, this is enough to conclude that Congress authorized extraterritorial prosecutions under § 1114. Abu'Khatallah may well be correct that “the focus of the legislation was domestic,” Reply 4, whereas the Delgado-Garcia court found the relevant statute to be “fundamentally international .... in focus and effect,” 374 F.3d at 1345. Yet Bowman still allows ah inference that Congress intended to authorize overseas prosecutions for crimes enacted in the wake of purely domestic incidents. Under Delgado-Garcia; a criminal offénse whose most natural or obvious applications are'domestic can.still be prosecuted abroad if the law had “many obvious extraterritorial applications” at the time, of enactment. Id. at 1346-47.
Abu Khatallah nonetheless argues that a comparison between § 1114 and § 1116, which criminalizes the murder of internationally protected persons, reveals- that Congress did not intend for § 1114 to apply extraterritorially.' Both statutes were amended in 1996; whereas § 1116 broadened the “internationally- protected person” category to reach “any othef representative, officer, employee, or agent of the United States Government,” § 1114 remained generally worded and geographically ambiguous. Def.’s Mot. Dismiss,' ECF No. 91 (“Mot. Dismiss”) 5. As a result, Abu Khatallah claims, § 1116’s amendment “would have been unnecessary if Congress had intended § 1114 to apply to the extraterritorial killing of all [U.S.] officers and employees.” Id. at' 5-6. The Court is not persuaded. To qualify as an internationally protected person, one must be, “at the time and place concerned[,] ... entitled pursuant to international law to special protection against attack.” 18 U.S.C. § 1116(b)(4)(B). Such an element is missing from § 1114. Section 1116 “applies] to a relatively small subset of the broad class of United States employees and officers covered by Section 1114;” United States v. Bin Laden, 92 F.Supp.2d 189, 203 (S.D.N.Y.2000). Such modest overlap between the two statutes is not enough to upend the method of analysis called for by Delgado-Garcia.
Other statutes not cited by Abu Khatallah lend some credence to his position that “when Congress intend[s] a homicide statute to apply-extraterritorially, it specifically state[s] so.” Mot. Dismiss 6, One of them, 18 U.S.C. § 1751, criminalizes (among other things) assassinating the President, Vice President, or President-elect. This statute would seem to satisfy Bowman rather easily. Yet it specifically clarifies that “[t]here is extraterritorial jurisdiction over the conduct prohibited by this section.” Id. § 1751(k). A similar law prohibiting the killing of members of Congress, cabinet heads, r-Supreme Court Jus* tices, and directors of specified intelligence agencies also explicitly permits prosecutions for extraterritorial conduct. 18 U.S.C. § 351(i), On the other hand,- a number of federal criminal statutes designed to prevent harm to the Government that would frequently occur abroad are expressly limited to domestic, offenses. Congress apparently understood that Bowman would otherwise apply in these instances, but for some reason chose to limit its operation. Such criminal offenses include discriminating against persons wearing the uniform of the armed forces, 18 U.S.C. § 244; commencing or facilitating an expedition against a friendly nation, 18 U.S.C.. § 960; and enlisting “to serve in armed hostility against the United States,” 18 U.S.C. § 2390. The Court therefore declines to demand clear statements of extraterritorial application in this case — essentially, to render Bowman toothless — merely because some criminal statutes have not relied on Bowman to signal their geographic reach.
The D.C. Circuit’s recent refusal to permit a Bivens cause of action to remedy harm inflicted extraterritorially does not change the Court’s analysis. In Meshal v. Higgenbotham, 804 F.3d 417 (D.C.Cir. 2015), decided after the Court heard argument on Abu Khatallah’s motion, the D.C. Circuit offered the following hypothetical in declining to recognize the asserted implied private right of action: “If Congress had enacted a general tort cause of action applicable to Fourth Amendment violations committed by federal officers (a statutory Bivens, so to speak), that cause of action would not apply to torts committed by federal officers abroad absent sufficient indication that Congress meant the statute to-apply extraterritorially.” Id. at 425 (citing Morrison, 130 S.Ct. at 2877). That statement fully coheres with this Court’s analysis. Bowman and Delgado-Garcia continue to govern whether the presumption has been rebutted for criminal statutes. Under current law, satisfying Bowman fur-. nishes a “sufficient indication that Congress meant the- statute to apply extrater-ritorially.” Id. Nor is this Court the first to hold that § 1114 reaches abroad under Bowman. See Al Kassar, 660 F.3d at 118; Bin Laden, 92 F,Supp.2d at 202; United States v. Benitez, 741 F.2d 1312, 1317 (11th Cir.1984).
For the foregoing reasons, the Court will deny Abu Khatallah’s motion as to Counts Four through Nine, which charge him with violating 18 U.S.C. § 1114.
b. 18 U.S.C. § 930(c): Killing a Person in the Course of an Attack on a Federal Facility Involving the Use of-a Firearm or Other Dangerous Weapon
Counts Ten through Thirteen charge Abu Khatallah with violating 18 U.S.C. § 930(c). Section 930 provides, in relevant part:
(c) A person who kills any person ... in the - course of an attack on a Federal facility involving the use of a firearm or other dangerous weapon, or attempts or conspires to do such an act, shall be punished as provided [elsewhere]. - ■
* * *
(g) As used in ‘this section:
(1) The term “Federal facility” means a building or part thereof owned or leased by the Federal Government, where Federal employees are regularly, present for the-purpose of performing their official duties.
Because § 930 is silent on its geographic reach, Bowman must again guide the Court’s extraterritoriality analysis. Bowman’s “harm” test is clearly satisfied here — the act of killing someone in the course of an attack on a federal facility directly harms the U.S. Government. The remaining question is whether § 930(c) offenses are “not logically dependent on their locality,” meaning that the .provision had “many obvious extraterritorial applications” when it was enacted (or most^ recently amended). Delgado-Garcia, 374 F.3d at 1346-47. . ,,
Abu Khatallah points out that- § -930(c) was added to 18 U.S.C. ■§ 930 as" part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, Pub. L. No. 103-322, § 60014, 108 Stat. 1796. He°'argueS that because some' other provisions of this omnibus legislation expressly permitted prosecutions for conduct abroad, Congress cannot be said to have clearly authorized the extraterritorial use of .§ 930(c). Mot. Dismiss 8. Abu -Khatallah further claims that the “obvious focus” of this statute is “Federal facilities within U.S. territory,” id. 9, for “§ 930(c) was passed as part of a series of laws targeting murder committed by escaped prisoners, murder of state or local officials assisting federal law enforcement officials, the protection of court officers and jurors, and the retaliatory-killings of witnesses, victims, and informants.” Reply-6-7.
Yet a criminal statute whose legislative history and neighboring provisions are bereft of foreign references may still apply extraterritorially if Bowman’s “harm” and “locus” elements (as understood by Delgado-Garcia) are both satisfied. Again, the Government has not provided a concrete figure for or independently ' substantiated how many federal facilities exist outside the United' States. But it has assured the Court that they number in the “hundreds.” Opp’n;12. Abu Khatallah does not contest this approximation. Cf. Bin Laden, 92 F.Supp.2d at 201-02 (observing that “a significant number of Federal facilities are located outside the United States”). The Court notes that embassies, consulates, and other diplomatic missions would seem to be fairly encompassed within § 930(g)(l)’s definition; of “Federal.facility,” as-would the component structures of military bases. Such structures were no doubt- similarly prevalent when § 930(c) was enacted in 1994. The Government also asserts that “many- [Federal facilities abroad] -are in more dangerous areas than Federal facilities within the United States,” which presumably alerted Congress to the likelihood of attacks on overseas facilities for reasons apart from those facilities’- sheer numerosity. Opp’n 12. The Court hesitates to impute an ignorance of these conditions to the enacting Congress. Accordingly, the Court joins the Southern District of New York in concluding that § 930(c)’ applies extraterritorially under Bowman, because that law had many foreseeable extraterritorial applications at the time of enactment. See Bin Laden, 92 F.Supp.2d at 201-02. The Court • will therefore not dismiss Counts Ten through Thirteen for lack of extraterritoriality.
c. 18 U.S.C. § 844(f)(1) & (3): Maliciously ’Damaging arid Destroying U.S. Property by Means of Fire and an Explosive Causing Death
Counts Fourteen and Fifteen charge Abu Khatallah with violating 18 U.S.C. § 844(f)(1) & (3). Sections 844(f)(1) and (3) provide:
(f)(1) Whoever maliciously damages or destroys, or attempts to damage or destroy, by means of fire or an explosive, any building, vehicle, or other personal or real property in whole or in part owned or possessed by, or leased to, the United States, or any' department or agency thereof, or any institution or organization receiving Federal financial assistance, shall be imprisoned for not less than 5 years and not more than 20 years, fined under this title, or both.
*]* $ H'
(3) Whoever engages ’in conduct prohibited by this subsection; and-as a result of such conduct directly or .proximately causes the death of any person, including any public safety officer performing [his] duties, shall be subject to the death penalty, or imprisoned for not less than 20 years or for life, fined under this title, or both.
As with § 1114 and § 930(c), § 844(f) contains no provision explicitly authorizing extraterritorial usé. The Court will therefore analyze § 844(f)’s geographic, reach under the Bowman framework. Damaging,or destroying- U.S. property unquestionably harms the U.S. Government. So again, the remaining issue is whether § 844(f) had “many obvious extraterritorial applications” at the time of its enactment or most recent amendment. Delgado-Garcia, 374 F.3d at 1347.
The Court answers in the affirmative. Statutory “Federal facilities” — buildings owned or leased by the U.S. Government, where federal employees are regularly present for the purpose of performing their official duties — are but a subset of “personal or real property in whole or in part owned or possessed by, or leased to, the United States, or any department or agency thereof.” 18 U.S.C. § 844(f)(1). The enacting Congress cannot have envisioned considerably fewer overseas applications of a more expansive category., of crimes. Because the Court. has already concluded that Bowman permits extraterritorial prosecutions under § 930(c), the Government may necessarily proceed under § 844(f), as well. Again, the Southern District of New York has held likewise. See Bin Laden, 92 F.Supp.2d at 198.
Abu Khatallah insists that § 844(f) “does not have an international focus.” Mot: Dismiss 10. For all the Court can tell, he is correct. Abu Khatallah argues that the'congressional activity preceding § 844(f)’s original enactment “clearly evidences the intent to address property within the United States that had become vulnerable to a rash of bombings on account, of protests against the Vietnam War” and to expand federal investigative and prosecutorial authority over such incidents. Reply 7. The, Government offers no reason to doubt this-account of the historical forces driving § 844’s passage. But Abu Khatallah misunderstands the import of Delgado-Garcia’s application of Bowman. To be sure, Delgado-Garcia characterized' § 1324(a)’s border-control provisions as “fundamentally international ... in focus and effect.” Delgado-Garcia, 374 F.3d at 1345. Delgado-Garcia could have interpreted Bowman to mean that an offense is not logically dependent on its locality when it, will likely be committed overseas more often than not, just as the court believed that § 1324(a) crimes would be. Yet the D.C. Circuit articulated a more permissive standard for satisfying Bowman’s “locus” element: whether a criminal statute “ha[s] many obvious extraterritorial applications.” Id. at 1347. A prohibition can have many obvious extraterritorial applications even if it is most readily and naturally deployed domestically.
Nor is it material that § 844(f) prohibits the damaging or destruction of “any institution or organization receiving Federal financial- assistance,” the great majority of which are presumably located domestically. Section 844 clearly targets a vast range of destructive behavior undertaken within the territorial United States. But its independently operative provisions that protect U.S. property could foreseeably be applied abroad in a great number of situations; this must have been known when the statute was modified in 2002, as well. As ■ a result, the Court will deny Abu Khatallah’s motion as to Counts Fourteen and Fifteen.
d. 18 U.S.C. § 924(c): Using, Carrying, Brandishing, and Discharging a Firearm During a Crime of Violence
Count Eighteen charges Abu Kha'-tallah with violating § 924(c)(1)(A). Section 924(c) provides, in relevant part:
(c)(1)(A) .. i [A]ny person who, during and in relation to any crime of violence or drug trafficking crime (including a crime of violence or drug trafficking crime that provides for an enhanced punishment if committed by the use of a deadly or dangerous weapon or device) for which the person may be prosecuted in a court of the United States, uses or carries a firearm, or who, in furtherance of any such crime, possesses a firearin, shall, in addition to the punishment provided for such crime of violence or drug trafficking crime—
(i) be sentenced to a tern of imprisonment of not less than 5 years;
(ii) if the firearm is brandished, be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not less than 7 years; and :
(iii) if the firearm is discharged, ■ be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not less than 10 years.
* * *
(3) For purposes of this subsection the term “crime of violence” means an offense that is a felony and—
(A) has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another, or
(B) that by its nature, involves a substantial* risk that physical -'.force against the person or property of another may be used in the course of committing the offense.
Count Eighteen specifically charges-' Abu Khatallah- with “us[ing], carrying], brandishing], and discharging]- firearms ... during and in relation to” every other offense with-which he has been charged. Indictment, Count Eighteen ¶ 2. Abu Kha-tallah has not disputed that each of these other offenses qualifies as a “crime of violence” under . § 924(e). He instead contends that § 924(c) offenses cannot be prosecuted extraterritorially because § 924(c) is a quintessentially'domestic provision enacted to help cleanse .America’s streets and neighborhoods of violent crime.
Section 924(c) nowheré explicitly authorizes extraterritorial prosecutions. If the Court proceeded to apply Bowman, it would grant Abu Khatallah’s Motion as to Count 18. The crime of “us[ing] or earr[ying]” a gun “during and in relation to any crime of violence” does not harm the U.S. Government’s interests any more directly than the commission of any'other federal crime; § 924(c) was not enacted to equip the Government to “defend itself ‘á'gainst obstruction ] pr fraud.” Bowman, 260 U.S. 'at 98, 43 S.'Ct. 39. Rather, the statutory term'“crime of violence” hinges upon the actuality or prospect of “physical force against the person or property of another.” 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(3). One lesson of Bowman is that “[c]rimes against private individuals or their property” cannot be charged extraterritorially without a clear statement to that effect-. Bowman, 260 U.S. at 98, 43 S.Ct. 39. The Government, moreover, 'has not sought to discredit Abu Khatallah’s account of the reasons for § 924(c)’s enactment. That provision first appeared as part of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, Pub. L. No. 90-351, § 902, 82 Stat. 233. Abu Khatallah claims that § 924(c) is ■“set within a comprehensive statutory scheme regulating the domestic licensing, trade and use of guns and other firearms” in order to counteract “the-gun violence problem within the United States.” Mot. Dismiss 11. For present purposes, the Court will assume that all of this is correct, and that later statutory amendments evinced no extraterritorial intentions.
Section 924(c) crimes are not ordinary substantive offenses, however. They depend on the commission of a concurrent— and predicate — “crime of violence.” The role of § 924(c) is simply to “add[ ] a weapon to the Government’s arsenal whenever a criminal uses a gun” in committing such an act. United States v. Mardirossian, 818 F.Supp.2d 775, 777 (S.D.N.Y.2011). The D.C. Circuit has concluded that “the extraterritorial reach of an ancillary offense ... is coterminous with that of the underlying' criminal statute.” United States v. Ali, 718 F.3d 929, 939 (D.C.Cir.2013). The D.C. Circuit has not comprehensively explained what makes a crime ancillary or substantive for purposes of extraterritoriality doctrine. See id, (merely citing “aiding and abetting or conspiracy” as exemplary “ancillary offense[s]”). But § 924(c) — which appears in a statutory section entitled “Penalties” — functions to regulate gun-related behavior in connection with an underlying criminal offense. The Court therefore joins six other courts in holding that § 924(c) applies abroad insofar as its predicate “crime of violence” may be prosecuted extraterritorially. See United States v. Siddiqui, 699 F.3d 690, 701 (2d Cir.2012); United States v. Belfast, 611 F.3d 783, 814 (11th Cir.2010); Mardirossian, 818 F.Supp.2d at 777; United States v. Hasan, 747 F.Supp.2d 642, 684-85 (E.D.Va.2010); United States v. Reumayr, 530 F.Supp.2d 1210, 1219 (D.N.M.2008); United States v. Emmanuel, No. 06-20758-CR, 2007 WL 2002452, at *13 (S.D.Fla. July 5, 2007). To the Court’s knowledge, no decision has ever held to the contrary.
Section 924(c) prohibits .using or - carrying a„firearm “during and -in., relation to any crime of-violence” for- which someone may be prosecuted in federal court. -Abu Khatallah-rightly observes -that “the use of the word ‘an/ in a statute does not [alone] convert it into one with extraterritorial application.”' Reply 9; see Validus, 786 F.3d at 1047. Yet for ancillary statutes, words like “any” and “'all” do maximize a derivative offense’s geographic reach by linking it to that of the predicate crime. For example, nothing in the general federal conspiracy statute reveals the slightest concern with overseas criminality. But when Congress prohibited “conspiring] ... to commit any offense .against the United States,” 18 U.S.C. § 371 (emphasis added), it affirmatively authorized extraterritorial conspiracy prosecutions insofar as the underlying federal crime were, found to reach abroad. This principle also applies to such classic ancillary offenses as aiding and abetting and serving as an accessory after the fact. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 2-3. So the fact that § 924(c) is embedded in a series of domestically inspired anti-crime provisions does not defeat § 924(c)’s derivative extraterritoriality in this case. Bowman simply does' not apply to -ancillary criminal offenses;-it does, of course, ’ continue to govern the geographic. reach of predicate crimes. . - - ..
The Supreme Court’s decision in Small v. United States, 544 U.S. 385, 125 S.Ct. 1752, 161 L.Ed.2d 651 (2005), on which Abu Khatallah relies, is not to the contrary. In that case, the Court considered the proper interpretation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), which made it “unlawful for any person ... who has been convicted in any court of[] a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year ... to ... possess ... any firearm” (emphasis added). Small considered the values underlying the presumption against extraterritoriality in holding that the phrase “convicted in any court” applied only to convictions in American courts. Small, 544 U.S. at 391, 125 S.Ct. 1752. The Court also remarked that the “presumption would apply .. were we to consider whether this statute prohibits unlawful gun possession abroad as well as domestically.” Id. at 389, 125 S.Ct. 1752. True, § 924(c) contains its own possession offense. But the Small Court was almost certainly referring to the prohibition of gun possession appearing in the very provision at issue in that case^ Section 922(g)’s possession offense — unlike § 924(c)’s — is not ancillary, because it requires no linkage (other than temporal) to ongoing criminal activity or efforts to shield it from detection. Small’s dictum therefore does not prevent this Court from treating as ancillary § 924(c)’s crimes of using or carrying a firearm “during ánd in relation to” a federal crime of violence, and possessing a firearm “in furtherance of such a crime. 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) (emphases added).
In short, the offenses underlying Count Eighteen — § 924(c)’s crimes of using, carrying, brandishing, and discharging “a firearm during a crime of violence — apply overseas to the extent that any predicate offenses do. The Government characterizes all other offenses with which Abu Khatal-lah has been charged as crimes of violence; Abu Khatallah has not argued otherwise. With the exception of 18 U.S.C. § 1363, on which the Court will request supplemental briefing, the Court will soon have held that every predicate crime with which Abu Khatallah has been charged may be prosecuted extraterritorially. As a result, • the Court will deny Abu Khatallah’s motion as to Count Eighteen.
e. 18 U.S.C. § 2339A: Providing Material Support and Resources to Terrorists Resulting in Death (and Conspiring to Do the Same)
Count One charges Abu Khatallah with conspiring to violate 18 U.S.C. § 2339A (“the material-support statute”), and Count Two charges him with a substantive violation of that statute. As with each of the offenses discussed above, § 2339A does not explicitly authorize extraterritorial prosecutions. Section 2339A provides, in-relevant part (with only potentially applicable predicate offenses listed below):
(a) Offense. Whoever provides material support or resources or conceals or disguises the nature, location, source, or ownership of material support or resources, knowing or intending that they are to be used in preparation for, or in carrying out, a violation of section ... 844(f) ..., 930(c), 1114, 1116, ... [or] 1363, ... or in preparation for, or in carrying out, the concealment of an escape from the .commission of any such violation, or attempts or conspires to do such an acti shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both,' and, if the death of any person results, sh