By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
DETROIT — The man accused of planning an ISIS attack on a large Detroit church was manipulated by an FBI employee posing as a 19-year-old Iraqi American Muslim woman, his defense attorney told a federal judge.
The Detroit Free Press reports that the attorney claimed the FBI employee enticed his 21-year-old client, Khalil Abu-Rayyan, in an attempt to get him to make boastful remarks about violence in the name of ISIS.
Ultimately, the attorney said, Abu-Rayyan fell in love with the woman who he believed was a Sunni teen.
Because of that, Abu-Rayyan “was lying and boasting” to impress a young Muslim woman whom he wanted to marry.
Prosecutors, however, described Abu-Rayyan as a man bent on carrying out a violent attack.
Magistrate Judge R. Steven Whalen agreed.
“There was real readiness” to carry out attacks, Judge Whalen said. “There was an expression of intent.”
