Last Updated 21:20:49 UTC Thursday, September 23, 2021
US — Minnesota. One of three men tied to an attempted bombing of a women’s health clinic and adjudicated guilty of the terroristic bombing of religious property has told a judge that his prison sentence should be significantly reduced, because he led a double life, secretly desiring to undergo “transgender surgery” abroad while heading a militia group in plotting and carrying out attacks.
Michael Hari, who is now 50-years-old and self-identifies as a woman named Emily Claire Hari, faces up to life in prison for the civil rights and hate crimes of Damaging Property Because Of Its Religious Character, Forcibly Obstructing The Free Exercise Of Religious Beliefs, Conspiracy To Commit Felonies With Fire And Explosives, Using A Destructive Device In A Crime Of Violence, and Possessing An Unregistered Destructive Device.
Acting as leader of the White Rabbit Three Percent Illinois Patriot Freedom Fighters Militia, Mr Hari drove a rental pickup truck to collect Joe Morris, aged 25, and Michael McWhorter, aged 31, on Saturday, August 5, 2017. Mr Morris and Mr McWhorter had not previously met.
At 4 AM, during a drive that had already lasted 10 hours, Mr Hari revealed to the two: “We’re going to go to Minnesota and we’re going to bomb a mosque.”
Equipped with assault rifles, a sledgehammer and a 20-pound bomb containing 10 pounds of gunpowder, the trio arrived at Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington at around 5 AM. At Mr Hari’s command, Mr Morris smashed out a window and threw in a container filled with diesel fuel and gasoline, and McWhorter lit a fuse on the bomb and heaved it into the imam’s office as worshipers prayed in the mosque.
The blast caused thousands of dollars in property damage and left worshipers with a shaken sense of security.
Amal Said, whose children attend a charter school in the same building, told the court, “I worry about strangers walking in the neighborhood, about cars driving behind us. I didn’t feel like my daughters and I were safe at home anymore.”
Mr Morris and Mr McWhorter pleaded guilty to charges related to the mosque bombing, and served as key witnesses against Mr Hari.
Mr McWhorter and his stepson Ellis Mack admitted they had joined Mr Hari and Mr Morris in committing a series of crimes around Indiana and Illinois.
Amongst the criminal acts was the November 7, 2017 attempted bombing of the Women’s Health Practice in Champaign, Illinois. A secretary reported a broken window and what appeared to be a live explosive device, which investigators believe was designed to ignite oxygen tanks in the surgical room where it was found.
The FBI additionally found that Mr Hari had planted explosives on the property of a neighbor whom he had been arrested for assaulting in July 2017. In an attempt to frame and discredit the man, Mr Hari called in a tip to the FBI about the explosives just before the start of the February 2018 trial on assault charges.
Through attorney Shannon Elkins, Mr Hari is arguing for a mitigated sentence of 30 years in prison for the mosque bombing, rather than the life term he is facing:
She strongly desired to make a full transition but knew she would be ostracized from everyone and everything. Thus, as she formed a ragtag group of freedom fighters or militiamen and spoke of missions to Cuba and Venezuela, Hari secretly looked up ‘sex change,’ ‘transgender surgery,’ and ‘post-op transgender’ on the Internet.
Ms Elkins claims her client had been planning a trip to undergo “transgender surgery” in Bangkok and Thailand. “Inner conflict” due to a “combination of gender dysphoria and right-wing misinformation” had driven Mr Hari’s criminal activity, the attorney said.
Mr Hari first made national headlines more than 16 years ago when, on March 28, 2005, during a custody dispute with his ex-wife, he kidnapped daughters Allene, aged 12, and Molly, aged 14, and took them to live with him in Mennonite communities in Mexico and Brazil. The case was featured on multiple episodes of the talk television show Dr. Phil, with the girls’ mother, Michelle, telling the host: “I’m just so scared I’ll never see them again.” When Mr Hari, who had been named a federal fugitive, brought Allene and Molly back to the US months later, he was found guilty of abducting the children, and received 30 months’ probation.
Mr Hari, who posted dozens of anti-government rants to YouTube under the handle ‘Illinois Patriot’, has previously held the positions of Sheriff’s Deputy and gun store owner. In 1988, Mr Hari ran unsuccessfully for Ford County Sheriff as a libertarian candidate.
UPDATE 21:20:49 UTC Thursday, September 23, 2021
On Monday, September 13, Mr Hari was sentenced to 53 years in prison. U.S District Judge Donovan Frank announced that he will recommend Mr Hari be sent to a women’s prison, but noted that the Bureau of Prisons panel is not required to follow the recommendation of judges.
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