A woman charged with plotting to blow up the New York State Capitol for the Islamic State group had the feigned encouragement of three undercover FBI operatives until her arrest, court records show.
Albany-based Muslim convert Jessica Bowie was arrested Wednesday “as she gained possession of what she believed to be an explosive device” for the deadly plot, the Justice Department said in a Thursday press release that commended officials’ “outstanding work.” The FBI’s complaint in court described her multiple conversations with paid FBI assets, including two who allegedly met with her in a car, taught her how to load a gun, gave her a disabled bomb, and taught her how to set it off. Agents apprehended her just after she stepped out of the meeting, according to the complaint.
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Bowie’s defense attorney did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment. She made her initial appearance in court on Thursday and is being held without bail. She faces up to 20 years in prison on charges of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
The FBI has used undercover agents or allies for decades with success, including in terrorism cases where a radicalized defendant’s candid statements are key evidence. But their actions can lead to court challenges if lawyers argue entrapment, meaning that law enforcement encouraged the crimes to such an extent that defendants may not have committed them otherwise.
Prosecutors famously suffered defeat in a high-profile case in Michigan after the militia-like group Wolverine Watchmen was accused of plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) in 2020 and topple her government. At least a dozen undercover FBI assets had infiltrated the Wolverine Watchmen’s leadership structure, provided funding, organized meetings, and proposed using explosives that were central to the plot. Jurors later acquitted five out of 14 defendants after defense lawyers argued entrapment in a case that sparked multiple trials.
The DOJ nonetheless alleges Bowie showed enough eagerness on her own to kill supposed enemies of Islam. The criminal complaint’s author was FBI counterterrorism agent Joshua Parker, who has 18 years of experience at the bureau.
Bowie made statements on social media such as “Praise be to Allah for September 11th” and “I will poison these infidels” in May, about two months before the first undercover asset began chatting with her online, according to the FBI complaint. The three FBI sources have “a history of providing credible and reliable information” and pretended to be ISIS partners, the bureau said. When the first operative reached out online and asked Bowie for her views on “jihad,” Bowie allegedly began a dialogue about her plans to find explosives and target “my state capitol.”
During her unwitting discussions with the spies, Bowie also said she might get “good tips” on a terrorist attack from “anarchist literature” she found and gave increasingly violent answers to logistical questions, according to the FBI.
“When [a second undercover source] cautioned BOWIE on hiding the [explosive] device, BOWIE stated that if her roommate found the device, then BOWIE would have to kill the roommate quietly, emphasizing not with a gun, but Bowie would have to have to cut her,” the FBI wrote. “BOWIE also told [the source] that she would rather die than go to prison.”
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Officials released photos Thursday of Bowie in an Islamic burqa allegedly surveilling the state capitol building and buying bomb-making items at a Home Depot store — after an undercover federal operative gave her $200 for the supplies.
“This is just the latest example of federal law enforcement stopping a terrorist attack in its tracks, before the unthinkable could happen,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said Thursday in an X post showing the images.
