A consumer fraud case against one of the nation's best-known Muslim advocacy groups, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, will go to trial early next year.

A federal court in Washington, D.C., denied a motion by CAIR on Wednesday to dismiss a case brought by five Muslims who claim they were victims of a CAIR staffer who falsely claimed to be an attorney and mishandled their cases.

Citing CAIR documents showing there were hundreds of victims of the staffer, Morris Days, the lawsuit alleges CAIR knew of the fraud and conspired to hide it from the victims.

Represented by the American Freedom Law Center, the plaintiffs charge breach of fiduciary duty and common law fraud along with violations of Virginia’s statutory consumer fraud.

AFLC said the decade-long litigation exposes CAIR to more than a million dollars in legal fees alone.

If you support WND’s fight to expose CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood, please consider a donation to the WND Legal Defense Fund for court fights like this one – which must be one if America is to remain free – and safe.

David Yerushalmi, the lead counsel, noted that in its dismissal of the motion, the court found CAIR's purported lawyer undoubtedly committed consumer fraud, common law fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.

"The only question for the jury is whether CAIR is liable as the employer for its lawyer’s fraudulent behavior," the attorney said.

"Given CAIR's cover-up and public admissions, that question will not be a difficult one for the jury."

CAIR describes itself as a Muslim civil-rights group, but the FBI determined in a terrorist-funding case in which top CAIR officials were named that it was founded as a Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas front group. The FBI consequently cut off its outreach activities with the national organization. More than a dozen CAIR leaders have been charged or convicted of terrorism-related crimes.

Yerushalmi has presented internal documents indicating CAIR's Herndon, Virginia, chapter knew or should have known that Days was not a lawyer when he was hired.

When CAIR officials were confronted with clear evidence of Days' fraudulent conduct, the attorney contends, CAIR's national organization conspired with its Virginia chapter "to conceal and further the fraud."

"CAIR engaged in a massive criminal fraud in which literally hundreds of CAIR clients have been victimized," Yerushalmi said.

"Justice might be slow and circuitous, but it has come knocking at CAIR's door for its due," he said. "We will make certain the knock is answered."

Robert Muise, co-founder and senior counsel of AFLC, said the ruling "sets the stage for a trial CAIR simply cannot afford."

"We fully expect CAIR to play the victim as a Muslim civil rights organization," he said. "But once that door is opened, we will present expert testimony that CAIR is in reality not a civil rights organization but rather a Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas front group committed to, what it terms, 'civilization jihad.'"

Court: 'Ample evidence' against CAIR

CAIR has sued the authors of a WND Books expose, "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," which documented the group's radical ties. A trial in the case is expected to commence within the next year.

While CAIR has complained of being named in the terror-funding trial, as WND reported in 2010, a federal judge later determined that the Justice Department provided “ample evidence” to designate CAIR as an unindicted terrorist co-conspirator, affirming the Muslim group has been involved in “a conspiracy to support Hamas."