Men charged in Bloomington mosque bombing hit with additional charges

Three men from Illinois accused of bombing a suburban Twin Cities mosque last summer are facing new federal charges in their home state. A grand jury alleges the suspects, along with another Illinois man, put a bomb on railroad tracks near Effingham, Ill. in an attempt to extort money from the Canadian National Railway.

Forty-seven-year-old Michael Hari, 29-year-old Michael McWhorter, Joe Morris, who's in his early 20s, and Ellis Mack, in his late teens, were indicted Wednesday in Springfield on conspiracy to interfere with commerce by threats and violence charges. Hari, McWhorter and Morris — the men accused in the mosque bombing case — are also charged with attempted arson. Hari is also charged with possession of a firearm by a felon.

Hari is the alleged ringleader of an anti-government group based in Clarence, Ill., he calls the "White Rabbit Militia." An indictment that a federal grand jury in Urbana, Ill., returned Wednesday afternoon outlines some of the group's actions.

It alleges the men would meet up in Clarence, to plan so-called "jobs" to fund the militia. These include robbing or trying to rob at least two Walmart stores in Illinois as well as suspected drug dealers in Indiana in mid-December. Those allegations about the robberies had been mentioned in court documents previously.

Authorities say in January, Hari, McWhorter, Morris and Mack put a bomb on Canadian National Railway tracks near Effingham, Ill., and tried to extort money from the railroad by threatening more attempts to damage the tracks if the company didn't pay up.

They're also charged with planting bombs in a backyard shed belonging to Jon O'Neill, whose property is next door to Hari's. According to a state complaint in Illinois, Hari assaulted O'Neill at gunpoint last summer over a disagreement about Hari's dogs getting loose. In an interview with MPR News, the family said they were lucky it was raining when the FBI discovered the bombs, otherwise their three daughters might have been outside playing in the shed.

The indictment says the so-called "militia" formed around the time of a mosque bombing in Bloomington, Minn., last summer and provided weapons and uniforms to its members and assigned them ranks. It doesn't say how many people were involved in total, though it says the men conspired with others "both known and unknown to the grand jury."

The men had been charged initially with machine gun possession. Those charges still stand. The new indictment also charges them formally in the attempted bombing last November of a clinic in Champaign, Ill. that performs abortions.

On Aug. 5 last year, a group of five worshipers had gathered for predawn prayers at the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington. Around 5 a.m. someone smashed a window near the imam's office, and threw in a pipe bomb. No one was hurt, but the blast heavily damaged part of the building.

The FBI field office in Minneapolis made the case a top priority, and in March, the U.S. Attorney there charged Hari, McWhorter and Marris with damaging the building by means of fire and explosives.

According to the complaint, the men rented a pickup truck and drove more than 500 miles to carry out the attack.

At this point, the men are not facing terrorism or hate crime charges. This is unlike many cases in that the suspects are charged in two different federal districts. A judge in Urbana — the central district of Illinois — has ordered them to stay there until this case is concluded. He set a June 5 trial date. The men are in the custody of the U.S. Marshals service and are being held in separate county jails.

A federal judge in Minnesota has given federal prosecutors based in Minneapolis an extension — until June 22 — to get an indictment specifically for the mosque bombing. Otherwise, there's no specific timeline for the Minnesota part of the case, but the suspects have been granted public defenders here.