The founder of an Illinois militia group, who was found guilty in connection to the bombing of a Minnesota mosque in 2017, now wants to be legally declared a transgender woman claiming the 'inner conflict' of hergender dysphoria and online right-wing conspiracy theories led up to the attack.
Michael Hari, who now identifies as Emily Claire Hari, 50, is asking to be legally recognized as a transgender woman and for an amended prison placement based on her transgender identityas federal Minnesota assistant public defender Shannon Elkins argues Hari's 'inner conflict' should allow for theminimum sentencing of 30 years, according to a recent filing.
Elkins is asking US District Judge Donovan Frank to grant her client the minimum sentence rather than the life sentence that is being sought by prosecutors.
'She strongly desired making a full transition but knew she would be ostracized from everyone and everything she knew,' Hari's defense attorney, Shannon Elkins, wrote in court documents obtained by The Star Tribune.
A jury convicted Michael Hari (pictured), 50, the leader of an Illinois anti-government militia group, of several civil rights and hate crime charges in the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque
Hari in an undated image possibly from around the time when he was found guilty of kidnapping his daughters and taking them to a Mennonite colony in northern Mexico in 2005
'Thus, as she formed a ragtag group of freedom fighters or militia men and spoke of missions to Cuba and Venezuela, Ms. Hari secretly looked up 'sex change,' 'transgender surgery,' and 'post-op transgender' on the Internet. As she purchased military fatigues for their 'missions' she also purchased dresses and female clothing for a planned trip to Bangkok, Thailand, for male-to-female surgery. She was living a double life.'
Hari continues to deny taking part in the bombing of which she's been convicted. Hersentencing is scheduled for September 13.
In 2020, a jury convicted the leader of theIllinois anti-government militia group of several civil rights and hate crime charges in the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque.
But in the recent filings, Elkins describes Hari as a 'pacifist' who peacefully lived in Anabaptist communities around the world and among other cultures. Claiming that, 'She is not a 'White Nationalist,' a 'Neo Nazi,' a 'Skinhead,' a 'Boogaloo Boi,' nor part of the 'Arian [sic] Brotherhood.'
Elkins insist Hari was influenced by misinformation and right-wing conspiracies writing:'This degrading, anti-Muslim, and Islamophobic rhetoric and misinformation has spread throughout the United States over the past several years through social media and the internet,' naming sites such asBreitbart, World Net Daily and Jihad Watch.
'Emily Hari is more than a one-note caricature,' Elkins said. 'She is a complex human being who has been convicted by a jury of her peers. She will stand before this Court for sentencing, facing life in prison. She asks the Court to consider a sentence that is just and proportionate rather than vindictive or symbolic.'
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence to jurors that included phone records and testimony of federal investigators who tracked Hari down to Clarence, Illinois, a rural community about 120 miles south of Chicago where Hari and two co-defendants lived after a seven-month investigation.
Prosecutors outlined Hari's hatred for Muslims as her motivation for the bombing during the trial, citing anti-Islam excerpts from Hari's manifesto known as 'The White Rabbit Handbook', named after her militia group.
The bombing at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center took place on August 5, 2017, when the pipe bomb exploded in the imam's office as worshipers gathered for early morning prayers.
No one was hurt in the explosion, though community members where shaken by the incident and the mosque's executive director testified last month that it has led to diminished attendance due to fear.
Local faith leaders gathered in front of the federal courthouse building in St Paul and thanked prosecutors and the jury during a press conference after the verdict was delivered.
Abdulahi Farah, a program director at Dar Al-Farooq, said the mosque's sense of community was 'shattered' after the attack, but the guilty verdict sends a 'strong message' to their congregants and other Muslim communities across the state.
The bombing at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center took place on August 5, 2017, when the pipe bomb exploded in the imam's office (pictured) as worshipers gathered for early morning prayers
No one was hurt in the explosion, though community members where shaken by the incident and the mosque's executive director testified last month that it has led to diminished attendance. A man leaves a sign of support near the damaged area at the mosque in 2017
Hari was found guilty on all five counts, which include using explosives, damaging property because of its religious character and obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs. She faces a mandatory minimum of 30 years in prison. FBI agents at the scene on August 15, 2017
'Our community members definitely have been sharing messages of hope instead of fear and isolation,' Farah said last year. 'Many more members are slowly coming back and feeling like this is the place where we belong, this is our home and we're not going anywhere.'
Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said during the press conference that while justice has been served in this individual case, the threat of violence toward Muslim communities by white supremacist groups still exists.
Hussein said these groups were galvanized by President Donald Trump's administration and that he was concerned the groups would take out their frustration with the president's loss in November's election on Muslim communities across the nation.
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'We urge, as we celebrate today's verdict, that law enforcement and particularly state and federal leadership do not ignore ... the potential for more severe crimes like this happening moving forward,' he said ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
US Attorney Erica MacDonald said in a press release at the time that Hari's goal was to undermine the Dar Al-Farooq congregation's right to practice their religion with violence 'driven by hatred and ignorance'.
'Today's guilty verdicts represent a condemnation of that hatred and uphold our fundamental right to live and worship free from the threat of violence and discrimination,' she said.
Hari was found guilty on all five counts, which include using explosives, damaging property because of its religious character and obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs.
The Star Tribune reported that Hari called the newspaper from jail a few hours after her conviction to say she was beginning a hunger strike.
The testimony by Hari's co-defendants, Joe Morris (right) Michael McWhorter (left), described how Morris viewed Hari as a father figure, and how Hari instructed them to throw the pipe bomb into the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center as Hari waited in the car
'I am protesting my sham trial by submitting to a trial by ordeal in the form of a hunger strike to prove my innocence and my sincerity,' Hari said, according to the newspaper.
Hari also said she was embarking on the strike for people wrongly convicted of drug-related crimes, the newspaper reported.
The testimony by Hari's co-defendants, Joe Morris and Michael McWhorter, described how Morris viewed Hari as a father figure, and how Hari instructed them to throw the pipe bomb into the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center as Hari waited in the car after driving up from Illinois in a truck rented by Hari.
Morris, who along with McWhorter pleaded guilty in January 2019 to their role in the attack, testified that Hari said the mosque trained ISIS fighters.
Defense attorneys argued that prosecutors failed to produce forensic evidence putting Hari at the suburban Minneapolis mosque on the day of the attack and attempted to discredit Morris and McWhorter with what they said were inconsistencies in their testimony. Hari refused to testify in his own defense.
Prosecutors refuted the defense's claims, citing Hari's past as a former sheriff's deputy that investigated crimes as how she knew not to leave forensic evidence behind.
But Hari's trouble with the law came long before the bombing of theDar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in 2017.
In 2006, Hari was found guilty ofchild abduction for which he was sentenced to 30 months probation
Hari fled to a Mennonite colony in Northern Mexico with his two daughters Mollie Hari, 15, and Allene Hari, 13, fearing he was about to lose custody
Hari's ex-wife, Michelle Frakes, went on the Dr. Phil show in 2005 to share her story and her concerns that she would never see her daughters again. Dr. Phil and an investigator tracked Hari and the girls down in Central America after 10 months of their disappearance
The former Ford County sheriff's deputy served 30 months probation after being found guilty of abducting her two young daughters in 2005. His ex-wife, Michelle Frakes, appeared on the Dr. Phil show sharing her story and concerns that she would never see her daughters again.
She told the story of her life with Hari saying'Michael would get angry if he didn't think I was living up to the expectations of a wife.'
'In his eyes, I could never do anything right. Michael teased me a lot throughout our marriage. He said he was testing my moods, if I could take it or not. He would point a finger at me like he was going to poke it in my eye and just do it over and over and over, and I would beg him to stop.'
But his 'teasing' wasn't only aimed at Michelle, 'Michael teased my daughters too. He would hold them upside-down when they were infants, ask them to hug him, and if they refused him, he would threaten to spank them.'
Hari was aa federal fugitive of the law and was later discovered to have taken her two daughters, Mollie Hari and Allene Hari- 15 and 13 at the time- to a Mennonite colony in Central America when he feared he would lose custody of the girls to Michele.
At the time, Hari was a apart of theOld German Baptist Brethren, which does not believe that girls should be educated after the age of 13-years-old.
It was Dr. Phil and his investigative team who convinced Hari to return to Illinois after 10 months.
Then in 2017, she began posting on YouTube under the name 'Illinois Patriot.' In her videos he spews far-right conspiracy theories and called for a rebellion.
In 2017, Hari began posting radical rants on YouTube under the username 'Illinois Patriot.' He posted his last video one day before he was arrested for the Minnesota bombing
Hari was the leader of the White Rabbit militia group. His manifesto was known as 'The White Rabbit Handbook', named after the group
That year a month before the bombing of the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center, Hari was arrestedfor the alleged assault of a neighbor, according to the Ford County Record.
The Ford County Sheriff's Office released a report detailing how Hari allegedly used an 'arm-bar takedown' maneuver on his neighbor to restrain him and then pressed an airsoft handgun against the back of his head as he was being held face-down against the back of Hari's car amid an argument with his neighbor.
After a witness stepped in and tore the men apart, Hari attacked Jon-Michael O'Neill a second time.
In a video posted to her YouTube account in 2018 titled 'A Cry for Liberty', Hari wearing a mask to conceal most of her face, calls viewers to 'take a stand for liberty right now.'
Despite an earlier claim in the video of support for then-president Donald Trump, Hari continues to rant about the 'illegitimate' government. 'It's time for resistance. It's time for people to resist the unlawful government that we have now. This government is completely illegitimate.'
She perpetuates the false narrative of rigged elections falsely claiming, 'Our elections have been undermined through illegal votes, through surveillance, through blackmail. There's nothing left friends. Anybody who thinks that there's not a puzzle piece left that's gonna demand rebellion is living in a fantasy land and they need to wake up to the truth.'
'You need to be there with a rifle in your hand.'
Hari was arrested by the FBI on March 13, 2018, two days after posting 'A Cry for Liberty,' in connection to the Minnesota bombing.