Illinois Militia Leader Sentenced In Minnesota Mosque Bombing

CLARENCE, IL — The leader of an Illinois-based anti-government militia group was sentenced to 53 years in federal prison for the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque, officials said.

Federal prosecutors said Emily Claire Hari, then known as Michael Hari, was identified as the leader of a militia group called The White Rabbits in Clarence, Illinois, a rural community in the northeast of the state.

Hari, 50, was convicted last year of bombing and vandalizing religious property and using violence to interfere with worship, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Hari was also found guilty of recruiting two men, Michael McWhorter and Joe Morries, into The White Rabbits and attacking the Dar al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, on Aug. 5.

Witnesses told police the three people broke a window and threw a pipe bomb into the mosque as a group gathered for their morning prayers. The bomb caused “extensive damage,” according to a statement from a mosque leader at the time.

No one was injured in the bombing, but many members of the mosque gave victim impact statements during a court hearing Monday. U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank said Hari's intent was clearly meant to "terrorize individuals of Muslim faith."

"Diversity is the strength of this country," Frank said in a written statement. "Anyone who doesn't understand that doesn’t understand the constitutional promise of this country that brings a lot of people here."

Frank told reporters that he would recommend Hari, who is transgender, serve her sentence in a women's prison, but that the decision would ultimately be up to the Bureau of Prisons.

Hari was a former sheriff's deputy in Illinois and even went on an episode of "Dr. Phil" in the early 2000s to talk about how she fled to South America during a custody dispute over her child.

Hari, McWhorter and Morris were also charged in a failed November 2017 attack on an abortion clinic in Champaign, Illinois.