A Moroccan man accused of trying to conduct a suicide attack on the U.S. Capitol waived his preliminary hearing and detention hearing in federal court in Alexandria on Wednesday.
Amine El Khalifi, 29, is charged with knowingly and unlawfully attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against property that is owned and used by the United States or by any department or agency of the United States. At the hearing, he was ordered to remain in custody.
El Khalifi was born in Morocco and has been living in Alexandria illegally, according to the affidavit supporting the arrest warrant and criminal complaint.
Around Dec. 1, El Khalifi met an undercover law enforcement officer who he believed was named “Yusuf” and was associated with an armed extremist group. El Khalifi asked to be associated with the group, according to the affidavit.
El Khalifi discussed an interest in carrying out an attack with Yusuf and “Hussein,” an individual who, according to U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Peter Carr, was actually working closely with the FBI. Hussein represented himself to El Khalifi as an al Qaeda operative during this time, the court document said.
El Khalifi suggested several places for an attack, before saying around Jan. 15 that he wanted to blow himself up in the U.S. Capitol. He chose Feb. 17 as the date of his operation, the affidavit said.
Over the next few weeks, El Khalifi planned the attack, discussing plans with Hussein and receiving training from Yusuf on devices that El Khalifi believed could work, the affidavit said.
On Friday, El Khalifi entered a van with the undercover operatives that contained what El Khalifi believed was a vest with a functioning bomb and a MAC-10 automatic weapon. The vest and the weapon had actually been rendered inoperable by law enforcement, the affidavit said.
In a parking lot near the Capitol, El Khalifi put on the vest and took the weapon and told Hussein and Yusuf he intended to shoot people with the weapon before detonating the bomb. El Khalifi then walked alone from the van to the Capitol, but he was arrested and taken into custody, the document stated.
El Khalifi faces up to life in prison.
