PUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 12-4061
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff – Appellee, v. MOHAMMAD OMAR ALY HASSAN, Defendant – Appellant.
No. 12-4063
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff – Appellee, v. ZIYAD YAGHI, Defendant – Appellant.
No. 12-4067
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff – Appellee, v.
2 HYSEN SHERIFI, Defendant – Appellant. Appeals fromthe United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, at Raleigh. Louise W. Flanagan, District Judge. (5:09-cr-00216-FL-7; 5:09-cr-00216-FL-8; 5:09-cr-00216-FL-2) Argued: September 19, 2013 Decided: February 4, 2014 Before WILKINSON and KING, Circuit Judges, and Samuel G. WILSON, United States District Judge for the Western District of Virginia, sitting by designation. Affirmed by published opinion. Judge King wrote the opinion, in which Judge Wilkinson and Judge Wilson joined.
ARGUED:
Robert Joseph Boyle, ROBERT J. BOYLE, ATTORNEY AT LAW, New York, New York; Robert Daniel Boyce, NEXSEN PRUET, Raleigh, North Carolina; John Clark Fischer, RANDOLPH & FISCHER, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for Appellants. Jason Michael Kellhofer, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee.
ON BRIEF:
Kirsten E. Small, NEXSEN PRUET, PLLC, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellant Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan. Thomas G. Walker, United States Attorney, Jennifer P. May-Parker, Kristine L. Fritz, Assistant United States Attorneys, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee.
3 KING, Circuit Judge: The appellants in these consolidated proceedings, Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, Ziyad Yaghi, and Hysen Sherifi, were tried jointly in the Eastern District of North Carolina and convicted of several offenses arising fromterrorismactivities. On appeal, the trio presents myriad challenges to their convictions and sentences. As explained below, we reject the appellants’ various contentions of error and affirm. I. A.
On July 22, 2009, the federal grand jury in eastern North Carolina returned an indictment against the appellants and five others, alleging multiple terrorismconspiracies and related offenses. Bench warrants were issued for all eight defendants on July 23, 2009, and, four days later, seven were arrested. In September 2009, a superseding indictment was returned, followed on November 24, 2010, by the operative second superseding indictment (the “Indictment”). The Indictment alleged the following offenses that are particularly relevant to these appeals:
•
Count One charged the eight defendants with conspiring to violate 18 U.S.C. § 2339A, that is, to provide material support and resources for violations of 18 U.S.C. § 956 (the “Count One conspiracy”);
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