Judge Reprimands FBI, Orders Release of Man in 'Newburgh Four' Case

A federal judge ordered Friday that a New York man be released from prison after a “highly unsavory” government informant tricked him into an “FBI-orchestrated conspiracy” aimed at attacking an upstate air base and Jewish sites in the Bronx.

Judge Colleen McMahon's scathingly worded decision granting the man, James Cromitie, “compassionate release” was the latest twist in the case of four Hudson Valley men who were convicted of terrorism in 2010 despite arguing that they were trapped.

In July, Judge McMahon of the Federal District Court in Manhattan ordered the release of Mr. Cromitie's co-defendants, Laguerre Payen, David Williams and Onta Williams, for the same reasons. The men, the so-called Newburgh Four, were each sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2011.

Like the others, the judge's order called for Mr. Cromitie's sentence to be reduced to time served plus 90 days. The order did not overturn his conviction.

Mr Cromitie's lawyer, Kerry Lawrence, said on Friday that he had not yet discussed the judge's order with his client. Granting Mr. Cromitie compassionate release, Mr. Lawrence said, was “at least some kind of vindication for what we believe was a tragic miscarriage of justice.”

The FBI declined to comment on the judge's order, as did a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted Mr. Cromitie and the others.

Judge McMahon called the case “notorious” and wrote that “nothing about the crimes of conviction” was caused by “the defendants themselves.”

Mr. Cromitie was portrayed at trial as the key player in the bogus plot, having been recruited by Shahed Hussain, a longtime FBI informant whom Judge McMahon called “most unsavory” and a “villain.” Mr Hussain later rose to prominence as the owner of a limousine company that rented a defective vehicle to a group of partygoers in 2018, leading to 20 deaths.

In the Newburgh case, Judge McMahon wrote, Mr. Hussain's role was to infiltrate mosques in the state and identify potential terrorists. Mr. Cromitie, who met Mr. Hussain in a mosque parking lot, “posed as” a potential terrorist despite actually being a “petty con man and small-time drug dealer with no history of violence,” the judge wrote.

Judge McMahon went on to say that Mr Hussain wooed Mr Cromitie “with promises of rewards both heavenly and earthly, including as much as $250,000, if he would plan and participate in a jihadist 'mission' and find others to participate in it to take.”

After dithering for months, the judge wrote: Mr Cromitie, 'unemployed and broke', contacted Mr Hussain and 'agreed to take part in a 'mission'. He then recruited his co-defendants as lookouts “while he planted bombs manufactured by the FBI” at a synagogue and Jewish community center in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, the judge wrote.

“The three men were recruited so that Cromitie could conspire with someone,” Judge McMahon wrote. “The real lead conspirator was the United States.”

In addition to the Bronx targets, the plan included firing Stinger missiles at military aircraft at Stewart Air Force Base near Newburgh.

“The FBI invented the conspiracy; identified the goals; manufactured the munitions,” Judge McMahon wrote, adding that officials had “federalized” the charges — guaranteeing lengthy prison sentences — by driving some of the men to Connecticut to “view the 'bombs'.”

Mr Hussain, who is believed to live in Pakistan, could not be reached for comment. Last May, his son, Nauman, was convicted of 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter in the limousine crash and subsequently sentenced to five to fifteen years in prison.

Prosecutors had argued against Mr. Cromitie's release, but Judge McMahon rejected those arguments. The time he had spent in prison, she wrote, was “more than sufficient” to “foster respect for the law.”

She went on to say that what undermined respect for the law in this case was sending a “scoundrel” like Mr Hussain to “troll among the poorest and weakest men in search of 'terrorists' who might prove amenable to an offer of much needed cash in return. for committing a fake crime.”