Man accused of planned attack on U.S. military sentenced to 10 years for tax fraud, lying to FBI

A man suspected of planning an attack against the U.S. military overseas was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for tax fraud and lying to the FBI.

Federal prosecutors called the case against Jonathan Jimenez an abhorrent jihad scheme to murder high ranking U.S. military members overseas,stolen government money to pay for it.

Jimenez was convicted only of lying to the FBI and stealing $5,000 from the IRS. However, a federal judge ruled the case was also about terrorism and protecting the public. He sentenced Jimenez to 10 years.

The FBI said recorded conversations show local imam and felon Marcus Robertson was behind the plot. Prosecutors said Robertson had strong ties to the extremist Islamic group that bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 and was also convicted of stealing government money to fund even worse terrorist attacks.

Before Thursday, Federal Judge Gregory Presnell questioned the terrorism accusations against Jimenez involving even suicide bombings.

However, Presnell said, "There is a lot of evidence in the recordings that Mr. Jimenez was committing these crimes in relation to terrorism."

"Judges don't live inside a vacuum and certainly what happened in Boston brought home the clear and present danger of even these lone-wolf terrorists," said WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer.

Robertson has pleaded guilty to a federal firearms charge and is scheduled for trial in July for tax fraud, which prosecutors said was committed to pay for an international terrorist attack on the U.S. military.

WFTV