Judge orders release of three of ‘Newburgh four’ and accuses FBI of ‘trolling for terrorists’
Men convicted in post-9/11 sting were ‘easily manipulated, petty criminals’ caught up overzealous FBI scheme, judge says
www.theguardian.com
Three men convicted in a post-9/11 terrorism sting were ordered freed from prison by a judge who deemed their lengthy sentences “unduly harsh and unjust” and decried the role of the FBI in radicalizing them in a plot to blow up New York synagogues and shoot down national guard planes.
Onta Williams, David Williams and Laguerre Payen – three of the men known as the “Newburgh four” – were “hapless, easily manipulated and penurious petty criminals” caught up more than a decade ago in a scheme driven by overzealous FBI agents and a dodgy informant, US district judge Colleen McMahon said on Thursday.
“The real lead conspirator was the United States,” McMahon wrote in granting the men’s request for compassionate release, effective in three months.
She said it was “heinous” of the men to agree to participate in what she called the government’s “made for TV movie”. But, the judge added, “the sentence was the product of a fictitious plot to do things that these men had never remotely contemplated, and that were never going to happen.”
She excoriated the government for sending “a villain” of an informant “to troll among the poorest and weakest of men for ‘terrorists’ who might prove susceptible to an offer of much-needed cash in exchange for committing a faux crime”.
The US attorney’s office declined to comment. A message was sent to the FBI.
Citing concerns for the men’s health and her own qualms about the case, McMahon cut the 25-year mandatory minimum sentences she imposed in 2011 to time served plus 90 days. She said that would allow time for probation officials to prepare and for a lawyer to line up supportive housing for Payen, who has a severe mental illness.
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How does she blast the FBI when she's the one that gave them 25 years after presiding over the trial?
