NEWARK (1010 WINS/AP) – A New Jersey man who tried to aid Hamas and threatened to “shoot everybody” at an unspecified pro-Israel demonstration was sentenced Monday to time served on a federal charge.
Jonathan Xie, 25, of Basking Ridge, was handed a sentence in Trenton federal court of five years, four months, which he has already served. He had faced up to 10 years in prison. He’s also subject to 20 years of supervised release, including six months home detention and location monitoring.
As part of a deal reached with federal prosecutors, he pleaded guilty in 2020 to concealing attempts to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Xie sent $100 to a person he believed was affiliated with a faction of Hamas in December 2018, and a few days later, posted on his Instagram account that he was “pretty sure it was illegal but I don’t give a damn,” prosecutors said.
The U.S. has designated Hamas a foreign terrorist organization since 1997.
