After pleas for leniency, mosque bombers receive 16-, 14-year sentences

[iemanja]

Following a rare display of both victims and prosecutors advocating mercy, U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank sentenced two Illinois men Tuesday to 14 and 16 years in federal prison for bombing Bloomington's Dar al-Farooq Islamic Center in 2017.

Frank said the "substantial assistance" of Michael McWhorter, 33, and Joe Morris, 26 — including testifying against Emily Claire Hari, their "White Rabbits" militia leader — permits him to render penalties that each amount to less than half of the 35-year statutory minimums in the domestic terror case.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys described McWhorter and Morris as patsies in Hari's terror plot, manipulated to participate in a string of violent crimes that also included robbing Wal-Marts with airsoft guns, attempting to extort the Canadian railroad and unsuccessfully bombing a women's health clinic.

Acknowledging they were under Hari's spell, Frank also condemned McWhorter's and Morris's seventh-month crime spree as "contrary to everything America stands for," rejecting the 10-year sentence requested by their defense attorneys.

https://www.startribune.com/after-pleas-for-leniency-mosque-bombers-receive-16-14-year-sentences/600164328/

The Dar Al-Farooq leadership also asked for leniency for the men.

Emily Hari, the mastermind of the plot, was last year sentenced to 53 years in prison.

Among the group's former crimes was a failed attempt to bomb a women's clinic.
The leader of the group is a transwoman. I don't understand why she would take up right wing causes, when the right despises women like her.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. .

The leader of the group is a transwoman. I don't understand why she would take up right wing causes, when the right despises women like her.

She and her defense team talked about it after her conviction:

https://www.startribune.com/mosque-bomber-now-identifies-as-a-woman-says-right-wing-blogs-fueled-inner-conflict-leading-up-to-at/600090371/

Emily Claire Hari — previously known as Michael Hari — is asking a judge to legally acknowledge her transgender identity. Hari, 50, says a combination of gender dysphoria and right-wing misinformation fueled her "inner conflict" during the time that she was convicted of bombing Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington.

"She strongly desired making a full transition but knew she would be ostracized from everyone and everything she knew," Hari's defense attorney, Shannon Elkins, wrote in court documents. "Thus, as she formed a ragtag group of freedom fighters or militia men and spoke of missions to Cuba and Venezuela, Ms. Hari secretly looked up 'sex change,' 'transgender surgery,' and 'post-op transgender' on the Internet. As she purchased military fatigues for their 'missions' she also purchased dresses and female clothing for a planned trip to Bangkok, Thailand, for male-to-female surgery. She was living a double life."