Newburgh Four Arrested in FBI Entrapment Sting - "Buffoonery" Made Into Terrorism

Four men from Newburgh, New York—James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams, and Laguerre Payen—were arrested in an FBI sting operation in which a paid government informant conceived the plot, provided all the means, and coerced economically desperate men into participating. A federal judge condemned the operation, stating the government “came up with the crime, provided the means, and removed all relevant obstacles,” creating terrorists out of men “whose buffoonery is positively Shakespearean in scope.”

The Informant’s Role

In 2008, FBI-paid informant Shahed Hussain met James Cromitie in the parking lot of a mosque in Newburgh, New York. Cromitie was a down-and-out petty drug dealer struggling with poverty and unemployment. Hussain, who was working for the FBI to avoid deportation on fraud charges, befriended Cromitie and spent months attempting to persuade him to participate in a terrorist plot.

Hussain repeatedly dangled financial incentives in front of Cromitie, who was desperate for money. The informant offered to pay Cromitie $250,000 and promised to help him with his financial problems if he would participate in bombing synagogues and shooting down military planes. Cromitie initially resisted, but after months of pressure and financial inducements, he reluctantly agreed.

Manufacturing a Terror Plot

The FBI’s informant didn’t just observe or facilitate a pre-existing plot—he created it entirely:

• Conceived the plan: Hussain suggested the targets (synagogues in the Bronx and a military base)
• Provided the weapons: The FBI supplied fake missiles and inert explosives
• Removed obstacles: Hussain provided money, transportation, and logistical support
• Recruited participants: Hussain identified and recruited three other economically vulnerable men from Newburgh
• Scripted the rhetoric: Much of the inflammatory political and religious rhetoric came from Hussain’s prompting

The three other defendants—David Williams, Onta Williams, and Laguerre Payen—were similarly vulnerable. David Williams needed money for his brother’s liver transplant. Payen had a low IQ and mental health issues. All were offered substantial financial payment for their participation.

Judicial Condemnation

At sentencing, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon expressed deep reservations about the FBI’s tactics, stating: “The government came up with the crime, provided the means, and removed all relevant obstacles. I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that there would have been no crime here except the government instigated it, planned it and brought it to fruition.”

Judge McMahon described the defendants as men “whose buffoonery is positively Shakespearean in scope” and emphasized that they posed no genuine terrorist threat before FBI involvement. However, bound by precedent on entrapment law, she imposed mandatory 25-year sentences.

Vulnerable Targets

The Newburgh Four case exemplified a troubling pattern in FBI counterterrorism stings: targeting vulnerable individuals who posed no actual threat. Research found that the FBI often selected targets based on:

• Economic desperation and unemployment
• Mental health issues or intellectual disabilities
• Social isolation and desire for community
• Minority racial and religious identity (particularly Black Muslims)
• History of making inflammatory statements without any capability to act on them

Studies showed that Black Muslims were more than three times as likely as white non-Muslims to be targeted for sting operations, with “Black Muslim identity” being the most consistent predictor of FBI entrapment tactics.

Scale of Post-9/11 Sting Operations

The Newburgh Four case was part of a massive expansion of FBI informant-based operations after September 11, 2001:

• The FBI recruited over 15,000 informants—the most in its history
• Nearly 50% of federal counterterrorism convictions involved informant-based cases
• Approximately 30% were sting operations where informants played active roles in creating plots
• A 2014 Human Rights Watch study found that in many cases, targets were vulnerable individuals who posed no genuine threat

Sentences and Aftermath

All four men were convicted and sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. In 2021, after serving over a decade, three of the men—David Williams, Onta Williams, and Laguerre Payen—had their sentences commuted by President Trump in his final days in office. James Cromitie remained imprisoned until his sentence was also commuted by President Biden in 2024.

The case generated sustained criticism from civil liberties organizations, legal scholars, and even some FBI officials who questioned whether manufacturing terrorist plots was an effective or ethical use of counterterrorism resources.

Significance

The Newburgh Four case exposed how FBI counterterrorism tactics had evolved into manufacturing crimes rather than preventing them. By creating plots from scratch and pressuring vulnerable individuals to participate, the FBI could claim to be disrupting terrorism while actually generating threats that would not otherwise exist.

The case raised fundamental questions about entrapment law, which generally requires that defendants have a “predisposition” to commit crimes. When informants spend months or years pressuring targets with financial incentives, providing all means, and removing all obstacles, the line between predisposition and manufacture becomes meaningless.

The operation demonstrated how counterterrorism resources were being used to target marginalized communities—particularly poor Black Muslims—rather than genuine threats, creating the appearance of successful prosecutions while contributing to systematic harassment and criminalization of vulnerable populations.