Three men convicted in a post-9/11 terrorism sting were ordered freed from prison by a judge who deemed their lengthy sentences “unduly harsh and unjust” and decried the role of the FBI in radicalizing them in a plot to blow up New York synagogues and shoot down national guard planes.
Onta Williams, David Williams and Laguerre Payen – three of the men known as the “Newburgh four” – were “hapless, easily manipulated and penurious petty criminals” caught up more than a decade ago in a scheme driven by overzealous FBI agents and a dodgy informant, US district judge Colleen McMahon said on Thursday.
