Judge rebukes F.B.I. and orders release of man in ‘Newburgh Four’ case The judge said James Cromitie, like his co-defendants, should be freed because he had been duped into an 'F.B.I.-orchestrated conspiracy' by an 'unsavory' informant.

(NY Times) A federal judge on Friday ordered that a New York man be freed from prison because a “most unsavory” government informant had duped him into an “F.B.I.-orchestrated conspiracy” focused on attacking an upstate Air Force base and Jewish sites in the Bronx.

The scathingly worded decision by the judge, Colleen McMahon, granting the man, James Cromitie, “compassionate release” was the latest twist in the case of four Hudson Valley men who were convicted of terrorism charges in 2010 despite arguing that they had been entrapped.

In July, Judge McMahon, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, ordered the release of Mr. Cromitie’s co-defendants, Laguerre Payen, David Williams and Onta Williams, for the same reasons. The men, the so-called Newburgh Four, had each been sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2011.

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