Magistrate: Mosque bombing case should not be dismissed
A federal magistrate is recommending that a judge decline to dismiss charges against an Illinois militia leader who was the alleged ringleader behind the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque.
Michael Hari's attorneys had argued that four counts against him should be dismissed, saying that Congress exceeded its authority when it enacted a statute that Hari is accused of violating.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Hildy Bowbeer disagreed. A federal judge will now decide whether to adopt her recommendations.
Prosecutors allege Hari and two others drove from Clarence, Ill., to bomb a mosque in Bloomington, Minn., in hopes of scaring Muslims into leaving the U.S.
No one was injured in the August 2017 attack at Dar al-Farooq Islamic Center.
Hari is also charged in a failed bombing of a women's clinic in Illinois.
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