WASHINGTON -- In San Antonio today, 34-year-old Kristopher Sean Matthews (aka Ali Jibreel) admitted to conspiring to provide material support to the designated foreign terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham/Syria (aka ISIS), announced Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney Gregg N. Sofer for the Western District of Texas, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs, San Antonio Division.
Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth S. Chestney, Matthews pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge to provide material support to ISIS. By pleading guilty, Matthews admitted that since May 2019, he conspired with 22-year-old Jaylyn Christopher Molina (aka Abdur Rahim) of Cost, TX, to provide services to ISIS by administering an encrypted, members-only chat group for persons who supported ISIS ideology; by collecting, generating, and disseminating pro-ISIS propaganda; and by disseminating firearms training materials and bomb-making instructions to each other and to other members of the chat group and others.
Matthews faces up to 20 years in federal prison. He remains in federal custody pending sentencing scheduled for 10:30 am on March 4, 2021, before Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia in San Antonio.
Molina and Matthews were charged by a federal grand jury indictment handed down on Oct. 14, 2020, with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and one substantive count of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Molina, who remains in federal custody, faces up to 40 years in federal prison upon conviction.
The San Antonio FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), with valuable assistance from the United States Secret Service, the San Antonio Police Department, and the Gonzalez County Sheriffs Office, continues to investigate this case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark Roomberg, William R. Harris, and Eric Fuchs and DOJ Trial Attorneys George C. Kraehe and Felice J. Viti of the National Security Divisions Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.
It is important to note that an indictment is merely a charge and should not be considered as evidence of guilt. Molina is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Source: U.S. Secret Service