#newburghfour — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

From the article:

[The judge] said that it was “heinous” of the men to agree to participate in what she called the government's "made for TV movie.” But, the judge added, "the sentence was the product of a fictitious plot to do things that these men had never remotely contemplated, and that were never going to happen.”

She excoriated the government for sending “a villain” of an informant "to troll among the poorest and weakest of men for ‘terrorists’ who might prove susceptible to an offer of much-needed cash in exchange for committing a faux crime.”

...Citing concerns for the men's health and her own qualms about the case, McMahon cut the 25-year mandatory minimum sentences she imposed on them in 2011 to time served plus 90 days. She said that would allow time for probation officials to prepare and for Payen's lawyer to line up supportive housing for the man, who has a severe mental illness.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/judge-questions-fbis-role-post-223400751.html