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The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Former WMATA officer convicted of trying to aid ISIS

A former police officer for D.C.’s transit agency was found guilty Monday of obstruction of justice and attempting to provide material support to ISIS, the Washington Post reported.

Nicholas Young, who worked for the Washington Area Metropolitan Transit Authority until his arrest, was convicted by a jury in an Alexandria, Va. federal court after just a few hours of deliberation. He could serve a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison, according to the Post.

FBI agents arrested Young, 38, in August 2016 after a more than 12-month-long investigation. He was the first-ever U.S. police officer to face terrorism charges.

Prosecutors said Young tried to derail a federal investigation of an associate who he believed had traveled to Turkey to join ISIS, but who was actually an undercover FBI agent.

He was caught after purchasing Google Play gift cards and sending their codes to the undercover agent posting as an ISIS recruit. Young believed the cards would be used by ISIS fighters to download encrypted messaging apps, which the terrorist organization has used for communication between operatives, the Post reported.

Young did not testify in his trial, though prosecutors argued that anti-Semitism fueled his support for ISIS and neo-Nazism. Young’s lawyers said he’d been pushed by FBI agents to commit a crime, according to the Post.

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