ISIS-Sympathizer Worked With Chelsea Bomber In Jail: Feds

MANHATTAN, NY — The convicted Chelsea bomber Ahmad Rahimi and a Bronx man accused of supporting ISIS tried to team up in jail, federal prosecutors said in new court documents this month.

Rahimi, who was convicted in October of the non-fatal bombing in Chelsea last year, is believed to have passed ISIS propaganda to Sajmir Alimehmeti, a Bronx man arrested after allegedly trying to join ISIS. Federal prosecutors say Rahimi was sharing terrorist materials, including copies of an ISIS publication and audio files, via a hard drive within the jail.

Federal prosecutors said in court documents filed on Tuesday that Rahimi had passed the terrorist propaganda materials to Alimehmeti while the two were behind bars in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. The New York Post was first to report on the government's new allegations.

Alimehmeti, who authorities arrested in May 2016, had a hard drive stored in a locker in the jail, officials said. The hard drive was given to Alimehmeti to disclose the evidence that prosecutors had against him so he could review it in the jail's law library. Instead, prosecutors said, some of that evidence was wiped clean and replaced with ISIS propaganda material from Rahimi.

"In other words, at least some of the terrorist propaganda materials on [Alimehmeti's] Drive are files that were transferred, within the MCC, from media produced to Rahimi to the Drive maintained by Alimehmeti," federal prosecutors wrote.

Officials say they intend to introduce the drive as evidence in Alimehmeti's upcoming trial because it is "highly probative" of his motive and intent, according to the U.S. government.

Image credit: AP Photo / Mel Evans, File. Image caption: In this Dec. 20, 2016 file photo, Ahmad Khan Rahimi, the man accused of setting off bombs in New Jersey and New York's Chelsea neighborhood in September, sits in court in Elizabeth, N.J.