Closing arguments followed, with the chief of the district attorney’s counterterrorism unit, David Stuart, saying that Ms. Jacobs had acted as a “double agent.” He noted that she had bought throwing stars, combat knives and other weaponry, and said that she had asked for guidance from abroad while she carried out the jihadist mission on her own.
“From right here in New York City, the defendant used H.T.S. and Malhama Tactical to carry out her dreams of jihad and shared their terroristic intent,” Mr. Stuart said, referring to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham. “And they in turn used the defendant to gain access to the financial markets of New York that allowed them to carry out their acts of terrorism in Syria.”
A lawyer for Ms. Jacobs, Michael Fineman, pleaded with the jury to acquit, arguing that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter — it’s all a matter of perspective.” He noted that, in 1776, the British likely considered George Washington a terrorist.
He also asserted that the groups that Ms. Jacobs was said to have sent money to were not known to the jury, unlike ISIS or Al Qaeda.
But those arguments appear not to have landed with a jury, which was seated only about a mile away from the site of the attacks of Sept. 11. The lobby of the courthouse itself features a wall-length mural imploring visitors to remember that date. Once the members of the jury were dismissed to deliberate on Thursday, it took them only a little more than three hours to bring back a conviction on all counts.
This news is republished from another source.
