Last ‘Newburgh Four’ Prisoner Files Motion for Release, Cites Government Entrapment in Post-9/11 Plot

A man portrayed by officials as the ringleader of a terrorist group known as the “Newburgh Four” has filed a motion for his release, citing evidence he had been

Police stand guard outside of Riverdale Temple following the apparent foiling of a terrorist plot in the Bronx borough of New York City on May 21, 2009. Four suspects were arrested on charges of plotting to detonate explosives near a synagogue and Jewish center in the Bronx borough of New York City and to shoot down military planes located at the New York Air National Guard Base at Stewart Airport in Newburgh, New York, after a year-long police and FBI sting supplied the suspects with inactive explosives and missile. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A third shift worker at Walmart who was portrayed by officials as the ringleader of a terrorist group known as the “Newburgh Four” has filed a motion for his release, citing evidence that he had been “framed” by the U.S. government.

The attorney for defendant James Cromitie, Kerry Lawrence, alleged that the entire plot had been manufactured by law enforcement in the motion filed on Sunday in the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York.

“Cromitie had been maneuvered by the Government and its informant into committing a crime that had a twenty-five year minimum sentence,” according to the filing (pdf). “It was a crime so beyond Cromitie’s capabilities that any objective person would conclude that he would not, could not, have ever committed it if the Government had not framed him by suggesting it, supplying it, and walking Cromitie through every step.”

The targets, bombs, missiles, as well as plans for the mission, had all been supplied by a federal informant, Shaheed Hussain, who was trying to avoid prison time for a fraud case of his own. In the months leading up to the arrest, Mr. Hussain had become known in Newburgh for driving a flashy black BMW into the poverty stricken area of New York State.

“In brief, Cromitie, an impoverished small-time hustler, was gulled by the Government’s informant Shaheed Hussain to agree to commit horrendous terrorist crimes that he never would have even thought of, let alone attempted or committed, if the Government had left him alone,” the filing added.

“The offenses were heinous but never real and were made up by the Government in every respect. There was never any actual danger.”

Mr. Lawrence told the Epoch Times that he believes Mr. Cromitie should be released “as soon as possible.”

Last month, three of the four men convicted more than a decade ago in a high profile post-9/11 terrorism “sting” were ordered to be released from prison by a judge after her ruling that “the real lead conspirator was the United States.”

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon wrote in her scathing 28-page order that Onta Williams, David Williams, and Laguerre Payen—three of the men known as the “Newburgh Four”—were caught up in a scheme driven by overzealous FBI agents and a “villain” of an informant.

“The FBI invented the conspiracy; identified the targets; manufactured the ordinance; federalized what would otherwise have been a state crime … and picked the day for the ‘mission,’” Judge McMahon wrote.

The arrests came on May 20, 2009, after an FBI operation alleged that the men had been plotting terrorist attacks on Jewish synagogues in and around New York City, as well as planning to shoot down National Guard planes. All four were sentenced to a mandated minimum of 25 years in federal prison. In her July 27 order, Judge McMahon reduced the sentences of three of the men to time served plus 90 days.

The four men targeted by the informant have all been described as poor and unsophisticated. One of the four suspects, Mr. Payen, was arrested in a crack house surrounded by bottles of his own urine and suffered from “severe mental illness,” according to the judge. It was later revealed that he believed Florida was a foreign country.

The informant offered to pay medical bills for another one of his targets, David Williams, after learning he had a brother who was fighting liver cancer. Mr. Hussain also offered to pay the rent and cover debts for the other men convicted in the case. In addition to supplying all the weapons, Mr. Hussain offered the men hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, expensive cars, and other incentives for their agreement to help him carry out the plot, according to the defense.

At the trial for Mr. Cromitie, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon portrayed him as incapable of masterminding the elaborate plot, saying, “[The government] created acts of terrorism out of his fantasies of bravado and bigotry, and then made those fantasies come true ... Only the government could have made a terrorist out of Mr. Cromitie, whose buffoonery is positively Shakespearean in scope.”

“We have always maintained that the prosecution was a witch-hunt motivated by Islamophobia,” Amith R. Gupta, part of a group of lawyers representing Payen and the Williamses (who are not related), told The Epoch Times last week.

“Onta, David, and Laguerre were destitute when they were targeted and entrapped for their race, religion, and working class backgrounds by a government looking to spread fear of Muslims and justify bloated budgets.”

There is no publicly disclosed FBI rule about confidential informants giving gifts to the targets of the investigation.

Mr. Cromitie, 58, is presently incarcerated at FCI Allenwood Medium, having served over 14 years of his sentence.

Mr. Lawrence said that no time frame has been set for the court to review the filing.

A spokesperson for the FBI was not immediately available to comment to The Epoch Times.