The middle-class upstate New York mom accused of donating $30,000 to a deadly terrorist group “turned more Muslim” after Oct. 7 and even forced her own daughter to wear a hijab, neighbors told The Post.
Catherine Beth Washburn — a 37-year-old mom of two from Irondequoit — who allegedly led a home-grown anti-Israel extremist group, began wearing Muslim garb shortly after the Hamas attack on Israel in 2023, according to neighbors, who described the radical as standoffish and unfriendly.
She once screamed at her now 6-year-old daughter to “come inside and get dressed up” in her hijab, neighbor Donna Glover said. Washburn wasn’t wearing the outfit when Glover moved into the quaint neighborhood outside Rochester around five years ago, she said — but after the start of the war in Gaza “she just turned more Muslim.” A tattered Palestinian flag remained on the ranch-style home Thursday when The Post visited — three months after neighbors reported seeing a SWAT team break down the door and raid the house. “I have a feeling they were trying to push, well not them, but her, really was trying to push [Islam] on the kids,” a next door neighbor said, describing Washburn as “very, very f—ing weird.” The neighbor, who declined to give his name, said he spoke with Washburn’s husband Adam briefly on Wednesday. Adam Washburn, who seemed to be living separately from the family, described his wife as a “dumb bitch” and said he wouldn’t help her with bail, according to the neighbor.
Washburn allegedly spearheaded the Direct Action Movement for Palestinian Liberation, an anti-Israel group formed in the wake of Oct. 7 that encourages sabotage and property destruction, according to prosecutors in the Western District of New York. She is believed to have helped funnel $30,000 in cryptocurrency — through 80 separate transfers — to a terrorist in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group in Gaza, once telling him “I wish every day were October 7.” Old media photos show her as a modest middle class mmother of two children, smiling with her husband.
However, her social media accounts are now filled with pics of her wearing a hijab and anti-Israel diatribes — including one post showing the home addresses of so-called “Zionists.”
It’s unclear exactly when she became radicalized.
In her messages with the PIJ fighter, Washburn allegedly said, “If I lived in Gaza, I would fight alongside the resistance.”
She also said she hated Jews “very much” and wished Israel “would disappear,” the feds claimed.
Washburn took a selfie of herself and placed the image next to the Hamas flag and two hand grenades, according to prosecutors.
But she also seemed to predict her downfall in a November 2025 message, commenting that she would face hard time for her involvement with the anti-Israel group.
“Based on my passed [sic] fundraising and posting Im [sic] gonna get put away for a few life times,” she wrote adding a laughing emoji, according to prosecutors.
She is charged with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. She faces up to 20 years behind bars if convicted.
Washburn appeared in federal court in Buffalo on Wednesday where she was held without bail.
Washburn’s attorney didn’t return The Post’s request for comment.
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