In 2006, Brinkema presided over the case of9/11 conspiratorZacarias Moussaoui.[7] When she asked about thevideotapes showing the interrogation ofAbu Zubaydah, the government denied their existence.[8] As she sentenced Moussaoui to life in asupermax prison, she told him: "You came here to be a martyr and to die in a great big bang of glory, but to paraphrase the poetT. S. Eliot, instead, you will die with a whimper. The rest of your life you will spend in prison." Mr. Moussaoui began to respond, but Judge Brinkema continued. "You will never again get a chance to speak," she said, "and that is an appropriate and fair ending."[9]
On April 2, 2009, Brinkema weighed in on the question of whether terrorist detainees at theGuantanamo Bay detention camp could be prosecuted in the civilian justice system.[10]
In 2011, she presided over the fraud trial of Lee Farkas,CEO ofTaylor, Bean & Whitaker. During his sentencing hearing on June 30, 2011, she said that she did not observe any genuine remorse, and sentenced the 58-year-old Farkas to 30 years infederal prison.[11] She ordered Farkas and six others to pay a total of about US$3.5 billion inrestitution.[12]
She was the judge dealing with CIA officer John Kiriakou's whistleblower case, where she sentenced him to 30 months.[13]
On January 28, 2017, she was the second to order astay of anexecutive order by PresidentDonald Trump, which restricted immigration into the United States and prevented the return ofgreen-card holders and others. Although the order issued was atemporary restraining order, it blocked the removal of any green-card holders being detained at Dulles International Airport for seven days. Brinkema's action also ordered that lawyers have access to those held there because of the president's ban.[14]
On March 28, 2025, Brinkema ordered the release of a Venezuelan couple who received temporary protected status after illegally crossing the border in 2022,[15][16] but who were arrested in front of their children by ICE on March 21, which sparked fears that the Trump administration was again willing to separate families as part of its immigration initiatives.[17] Brinkema rejected the description of the woman that Erik Weiss, an assistant director of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Washington, had offered in a court filing, in which he called her an "affiliate" of the gang and later as a "senior member," which Brinkema said was solely on account of her being married to a member of that gang. Brinkema stated, "Is somebody an affiliate because he or she is married to a member of the gang?" She later questioned how the government could describe her as such, or as a threat to public safety, stating, "This is a terrible, terrible affidavit." Brinkema said that Weiss's assertion was "pure hearsay," "assumptions," and constituted "putting words in people's mouths," and told the Trump administration's attorney, "If this was a criminal case, I'd throw you out of my chambers."[15]
On April 17, 2025, she ruled thatGoogle illegally monopolized online advertising markets.[18] She found Google liable for "willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power" in markets for publisherad servers and the market forad exchanges which sit between buyers and sellers.
^Dwyer, Timothy."Moussaoui judge no mere bench warmer",The Record, March 20, 2006. Accessed November 26, 2024, viaNewspapers.com. "Right off the bat, Brinkema, who was born in Teaneck and grew up in North Jersey, made it clear to the defense and prosecution how things were going to proceed.... The family lived in Teaneck, Englewood and Tenafly as she grew up, said her brother, Alexander Milhomme, 59, a Closter resident."
