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Additional indictment for alleged Cincinnati terrorist

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Butler County Sheriff
Christopher Cornell faces a new indictment for supporting ISIL.

The U.S. Justice Department says a federal grand jury has indicted Christopher Cornell on an additional charge for "attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization."

The new charge is on top of a January 21, 2015 indictment alleging the Green Township man and Oak Hills Graduate plotted to build and plant pipe bombs at the U.S. Capitol and also use semi-automatic weapons and 600 rounds of ammunition to kill government officials.

According to the Government:

"(The) defendant is also alleged to have attempted to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization, specifically the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), knowing that the organization was a designated foreign terrorist organization and that the organization had engaged in and was continuing to engage in terrorist activity. Material support and resources consisted of personnel in the form of the defendant himself by plotting and attempting to execute an attack on the U.S. Capitol."

The FBI says he began tweeting his support for ISIS last summer and told an informant he wanted to go forward with a violent jihad.

A news release from the Justice Department says:

  • Providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization carries a potential maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. 
  • Attempted murder of government employees and officials is a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison. 
  • Solicitation to commit an attempted murder is a crime punishable by 20 years in prison. 
  • Possession of a firearm in furtherance of an attempted crime of violence is a crime punishable by a mandatory sentence of five years in prison.

Ann Thompson has decades of journalism experience in the Greater Cincinnati market and brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her reporting.