Yale Law Terminates Scholar’s Contract Following Allegations of Terrorist Org Connections

Yale Law School has terminated the employment contract of Helyeh Doutaghi, a former Associate Research Scholar who was put on administrative leave on March 5 following allegations of her connections to Samidoun, a US-/Canada-designated terrorist organization, The Buckley Beacon has learned. 

Alden Ferro, a spokesperson for Yale Law School, told The Beacon in an email that Doutaghi refused to cooperate with the investigation, and to discuss her connections to specific individuals in the Samidoun network. 

“Over the last three weeks,” Ferro wrote, “Yale has repeatedly requested to meet with Doutaghi and her attorney to obtain clarifying information and resolve this matter. Unfortunately, she has refused to meet to provide any responses to critical questions, including whether she has ever engaged in prohibited activity with organizations or individuals who were placed on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list (“SDN list”).” 

“As a result of her refusal to cooperate with this investigation, Ms. Doutaghi’s employment with Yale — which was set to expire this April — has been terminated effective immediately,” Ferro’s email concluded.

The development comes three weeks after Doutaghi was placed on administrative leave following The Beacon’s communication of the allegations to officials in the Yale Law School’s Office of Public Affairs. After her suspension, Doutaghi was interviewed by The New York Times, where she denied her connections to “any organization that would constitute a violation of U.S. law.” 

Shortly thereafter, Yalies4Palestine, Yale’s official pro-Palestinian student advocacy group, posted an official statement from Doutaghi, where she claimed the allegations to be the product of an “AI-powered right-wing Zionist platform,” referring to the “Jewish Onliner” report published on Substack on March 2. The Beacon republished the allegations on March 3. 

The “Jewish Onliner” article outlined Doutaghi’s alleged connections to the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Network, an organization designated by both the Canadian and US governments as a “specially designated global terrorist” organization, or SDGT. 

The designation, announced in October 2024 through coordinated press releases by the Canadian government and US Department of Treasury, accuses Samidoun of being a “sham charity” for another terrorist organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP.

In July 2022, Samidoun identified Doutaghi as a “doctoral student of international law and a member of the international Samidoun network,” where Doutaghi supposedly delivered a virtual speech during a film screening of “Feyadin: George Abdullah’s Fight” at the Tehran chapter of Samidoun. Doutaghi was a doctoral candidate at Carleton University at the time. 

Per the “Jewish Onliner” report, Doutaghi had also been present in Iranian state-owned media, doing so in her official capacity as a Yale employee. 

In August 2024, Doutaghi was interviewed by Press TV, a state-owned media organization based in Tehran, where she deplored “US imperialism” in her capacity as a “legal scholar” at “Yale University.” Press TV is currently under sanction by the US government. 

A few months prior to her appearance on Press TV, Doutaghi appeared on an internet webinar with Saeed Jalili, Ayatollah Khomenei’s current representative to the Supreme National Security Council, where she was allegedly presented as a “professor at Yale University.”

As of Friday evening, Doutaghi had not released an official statement.