Jessica Bowie charged in ISIS-inspired plot to bomb New York Capitol

Jessica Bowie, a 35-year-old Albany resident who authorities say pledged allegiance to ISIS, was charged Thursday with plotting to bomb the New York State Capitol and kill state senators, following an FBI sting operation that ran for about five weeks. Prosecutors have not alleged that ISIS itself had any role: the three purported ISIS contacts were all FBI confidential sources.

As alleged, Bowie plotted to deploy an explosive device at the New York State Capitol, intending to kill public officials and to destroy 'as much of the building as possible' before fleeing to ISIS-controlled territory in Syria.

Bowie made her initial appearance Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel J. Stewart in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York on a single count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Justice Department said. The complaint against her was filed the same day. She was detained pending further proceedings and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

How the sting unfolded

Federal agents had watched Bowie for more than a month as she communicated with at least one confidential source who posed as an ISIS facilitator, according to the criminal complaint. Over about five weeks she communicated with three FBI confidential sources, two of whom she met in person, told them she supported the group, and asked for help learning to make explosives.

Operatives working for the FBI supplied money for Bowie to buy the ingredients for a nail bomb, the affidavit states. She was photographed at a Home Depot in Rensselaer buying components she believed would build the device, including the long nails she intended to use as shrapnel, and a source later showed her an inert device purportedly assembled from those supplies.

I want to destroy as much of the building as possible and kill the senators while they are meeting. I want them to lose a lot of important documents as well

Bowie visited the Capitol five times between July 21 and August 9 to conduct physical surveillance, prosecutors said, taking dozens of photographs and circling the spot where she intended to place the device. FBI Special Agent Joshua Parker wrote in an affidavit that she settled on the Washington Avenue entrance on the building's north side, and the Justice Department released surveillance images of her on Capitol grounds.

The plan she described

She told a source she planned to disguise herself as a food delivery worker and leave the bomb in a bag made to look like a delivery, most likely at the entrance from Washington Avenue and Hawk Street. She wanted to strike when state senators were meeting inside, then escape to an ISIS-controlled area of Syria. The Legislature had been out of session since June and was not due back until January, and she appears not to have known the senators were not there.

Bowie said she had learned the Capitol could hold as many as 200 people and hoped she could take out at least half of that number, according to the complaint.

Bowie also arranged to buy a firearm and ammunition so she could fire on police or security officers if the attack required it, prosecutors said. She paid a source $150 for what she believed was a handgun, a magazine and ammunition, and handed over a further $200 as a donation to a person she believed was building the bomb. The $200 she spent at Home Depot had itself been supplied by a source.

Investigators said Bowie had considered other targets. She told the sources she would rather have hit the White House but concluded it would be too difficult, and she weighed Albany City Hall before settling on the Capitol and its state senators. She said she wanted the attack to have 'a affect on the American system' and to 'destroy some of the taghut,' a Quranic term for a false god or idol that jihadists use for governments they consider illegitimate.

A conversion, then an oath

Bowie converted to Islam about five years ago and began using the name Aisha Saif, court documents state. She formally swore an oath of allegiance to the leader of ISIS in May, and made the pledge again in audio recordings in English and Arabic that investigators traced to her.

More than a dozen social media accounts linked to Bowie posted messages supporting terrorism between May and July, according to the complaint, and were repeatedly suspended by the platforms for violating their terms. Writing under the username nusaybahsaif on May 28, she said, 'Praise be to Allah for September 11th,' and added that when she could migrate she would 'poison these infidels.'

Earlier this year, amid a rise in political violence and threats against public officials, we took steps to strengthen security at the State Capitol and across state government.

Senator Chuck Schumer and state Senator Jim Tedisco noted the arrest came weeks before the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Bowie became radicalized online, Sarcone said, and she told the sources she had gone from a little girl waving an American flag after 9/11 to someone who now kept stickers of the falling towers.

An FBI source communicated with Bowie from July 16 through August 17, and she messaged that she wanted to target her state capitol, which sat less than two miles from her home.

Handed a gun, then arrested

Bowie reaffirmed the plan on August 5 in a meeting with two sources that was filmed and recorded, prosecutors said. On Wednesday, in a car, the operatives handed her an inert firearm, a magazine, ammunition and an inert explosive device with instructions on how to use them. As she stepped out of the vehicle carrying the items, agents from the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested her.

Agents found knives and a handwritten pledge of allegiance to ISIS on her. She was advised of her rights, waived them and spoke to agents, telling them there was no helping her and that she expected to spend the rest of her life in prison. She has no prior arrests.

Who ran the investigation

The investigation was led by the FBI's Albany Field Office, with help from the U.S. Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations, the New York State Police, the Albany County Sheriff's Office and the Albany Police Department, the Justice Department said. First Assistant U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III laid out the case at a news conference in Albany on Thursday, alongside FBI officials and a Secret Service representative.

Sarcone said the announcement would have a chilling effect on anyone in the country being radicalized or considering acts of violence, and called ISIS one organization that is hell-bent on murdering Americans, destroying our democracy and disrupting our very own way of life.'

Plans to flee, then return

Craig Tremaroli, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Albany field office, said Bowie planned to leave the country after the bombing and was willing to return to carry out more attacks, naming the White House and a New Year's Eve strike in Times Square. She also spoke of attacking the president and of coming back to do more.

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on X that the plot had reached advanced stages, with Bowie having conducted surveillance at the Capitol at least five times and purchased materials to build an explosive device. Operations Director Matt Fodor of the FBI's National Security Branch said the bureau detected and stopped the plot before it could be carried out.

State Assembly Minority Leader Ed Ra said calling the alleged plot unsettling would be an understatement, and that a planned terror attack at the State Capitol was a reminder of the rising threat of violence against American institutions and principles.

Bowie was being held in the Schenectady County Jail as of Thursday, and the charge she faces carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, along with a lifetime of supervised release.

An allegation, not a verdict

The allegations against Bowie have not been tested in court, and the criminal complaint remains the government's account of what it says she planned. No plea is taken at this stage, and the Federal Defenders office in Albany, which is representing her, declined to comment. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Ryan D. White of the Justice Department's National Security Division counterterrorism section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard Belliss and Joseph Hartunian for the Northern District of New York.