Jury acquits Broward man accused of plotting to bomb N.Y. landmark

Crime admin July 3, 2026 0 Comments

Jury acquits Broward man accused of plotting to bomb N.Y. landmark

Two years ago, an FBI informant met with a South Florida man who expressed his desire to join an anti-government militia and build a bomb targeting a New York City landmark, the FBI said. His plan: to plant an improvised explosive device outside the New York Stock Exchange the week before Thanksgiving 2024.

But at trial this week in Miami, Harun Abdul-Hamid Yener, 32, of Coral Springs, was found not guilty of all charges in a five-count indictment, including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and threatening to assault and murder federal law enforcement officers.

The 12-person federal jury’s acquittal on Tuesday spared Yener of potentially decades in prison if he had been convicted of the main explosive charge. Yener, who had been detained without a bond since his arrest in November 2024, was allowed to go free.

Attorneys Abigail Becker and Victor Van Dyke, with the Federal Public Defender’s Office, convinced the jury Yener was entrapped by federal agents. They argued that federal authorities cannot induce a person to commit a crime he was not predisposed to commit and then prosecute him for it, stressing the alleged misconduct originated with law enforcement, not Yener.

Since Nov. 20, 2024, Yener had been detained at a federal lock-up in Miami after his lawyers and prosecutors agreed to his detention before trial. The FBI started an investigation in February after receiving a tip that Yener was storing bomb-making designs in an unlocked storage unit, according to a criminal complaint.

The following month, FBI agents contacted Yener. With his consent and a warrant, they searched the unit and found spiral notebooks, bomb-making sketches, watches with timers, circuit boards and other electronics for creating explosive devices, according to an affidavit filed with the complaint.

Among the writings in his notebook: “Be prepared brothers. The day for battle is near, many of our enemies are arming themselves. Soon the United States and her allies will attack.”

Yener described one drawing as a “Bouncing Betty-style landmine,” noting that, when tripped, the device “expels its explosive charge into the air so the charge detonates above ground level for maximum effect,” the affidavit says.

FBI agents also said they uncovered multiple internet searches on Yener’s Google account for bomb-making information.

After the agents questioned him, an FBI informant engaged Yener in June 2024. He talked about his desire to join an anti-U.S. militia group and develop an explosive device, the affidavit says.

Yener later met with an FBI employee who he believed to be part of a militia and “identified the New York Stock Exchange as the location for deploying and detonating the improvised explosive device and his target date for carrying out the bombing was the week of November 18, 2024,” the affidavit says.

But at trial before U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom, Yener’s defense lawyers convinced the jury that the FBI’s tactics were akin to entrapment, undermining the indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami.