Texas man with ties to ISIS pleads guilty
By a Biometrica staffer
January 28, 2021
A Texas man pled guilty to conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq, at a hearing in San Antonio on Jan. 25.
Jaylyn Christopher Molina, aka Abdur Rahim of Cost, was plotting attacks on the White House and Trump Tower in New York City, according to an AP report. Molina, 22, also pled guilty to one count of receiving child pornography after federal authorities found images on his mobile while executing a search warrant.
Molina admitted he was conspiring with 34-year-old South Carolina resident Kristopher Sean Matthews, aka Ali Jibreel, and others since May 2019 to provide services to ISIS by supervising an encrypted chat group devoted to people who supported ISIS ideology. The chat group was used to disseminate ISIS propaganda and bomb-making instructions apart from trying to recruit for the banned outfit.
The AP report says the pair had discussed traveling to Syria to fight with ISIS or carry out attacks at Trump Tower, the White House, the New York Stock Exchange or the headquarters of federal law enforcement agencies. When Molina’s mobile was seized while executing a search warrant on Sept. 18, 2020, federal authorities found 18 images depicting child pornography.
He faces up to 20 years in prison on the conspiracy charge and up to 20 years on the child pornography charge. Matthews pled guilty to a conspiracy charge to provide material support to ISIS. Matthews is scheduled to be sentenced in Mar. 4 and Molina for Apr. 22. The San Antonio FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), with assistance from the San Antonio Police Department, the U.S. Secret Service and the Gonzalez County Sheriff’s Office, investigated this case.