MINNEAPOLIS — Following a rare display of both victims and prosecutors advocating mercy, U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank sentenced two Illinois men Tuesday to 14 and 16 years in federal prison for bombing Bloomington's Dar al-Farooq Islamic Center in 2017.
Frank said the "substantial assistance" of Michael McWhorter, 33, and Joe Morris, 26 — including testifying against Emily Claire Hari, their "White Rabbits" militia leader — permitted him to render penalties that each amounted to less than half of the 35-year statutory minimums in the domestic terror case.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys described McWhorter and Morris as patsies in Hari's terror plot, manipulated to participate in a string of violent crimes that included robbing a Walmart with airsoft guns, a home invasion, attempting to extort the Canadian railroad and an unsuccessful attempt to bomb a women's health clinic.
