(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In November 2024, the FBI arrested Harun Abdul-Malik Yener, a homeless man who was supposedly plotting to bomb the New York Stock Exchange—a case involving at least three undercover FBI agents and an informant.
But less than two years later, the government’s case against Yener has collapsed after a jury found him not guilty last month of the terrorism accusations. Yener’s defense attorneys say the case never should’ve got to trial due to what they describe as “outrageous government conduct.”
The case started in February 2024. At the time, Yener was homeless and living in the alleyway behind a hoagie shop in Coral Springs, Florida. He also rented a small storage unit at “Coral Springs Mini Storage,” a few blocks away from the alleyway in which he slept.
According to court records, on Valentine’s Day of that year an employee at the storage facility noticed that Yener had not placed a lock on his unit. In violation of company policy, the employee began searching through his stuff—finding Yener’s personal journal, which had drawings of various landmines, explosives, missiles, and other improvised explosive devices. The employee called the cops, who also got the FBI involved.
On March 1, 2024, the FBI detained Yener outside of a diner and asked him about his storage unit. Initially, he refused to speak, before cracking and allowing the FBI to search his belongings. The FBI went to the storage unit and searched it for several hours. Yener wasn’t arrested or charged, but the FBI confiscated his cell phones—obtaining a warrant to search them days later.
Even after agents searched through his phone, Yener still wasn’t charged. But the FBI did run an informant at him. According to court records, the FBI informant established contact with Yener in June 2024 through an instant messaging application. Yener allegedly told the informant that he knew how to construct an explosive device. He also disclosed that he previously tried to join the right-wing Proud Boys and Boogaloo Boys, but was denied membership because he “expressed a desire to pursue martyrdom.”
After talking with the FBI informant for weeks, Yener met with an undercover FBI agent on Sept. 26. After another meeting on Oct. 3, Yener allegedly told the undercover agent he settled on the New York Stock Exchange as his target. On Oct. 23, Yener met with three undercover FBI agents, where he allegedly presented his “plan” to bomb the NYSE the week before Thanksgiving.
On Nov. 20, 2024, the FBI arrested Yener—making splashy headlines about thwarting a deadly attack. “Florida Man Accused of Plotting Attack on New York Stock Exchange,” “Man charged with planning attack on New York Stock Exchange,” and “Florida man arrested in alleged plot to bomb New York Stock Exchange,” were the headlines from the New York Times, Politico and CNN, respectively—just to name a few.
However, Yener pled not guilty to all the charges, which included attempt to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempt to use explosive, and three counts of threatening to murder a federal law enforcement officer. And as his case proceeded, Yener’s defense attorneys accumulated more and more evidence showing that the FBI never viewed him as a legitimate threat in the first place.
For instance, the FBI determined on Sept. 23, 2024, that Yener’s “threats against the Government in general and the FBI Director specifically appear to be aspirational at this point.” An FBI agent wrote in an email the next day that the FBI does “not assess that the subject has the resources to build a device and may suffer from mental health issues.”
The FBI also knew that Yener—contrary to his braggadocious comments about being in contact with ISIS fighters—never actually talked to any terrorist organizations in the Middle East. Additionally, the FBI said it “reviewed financial subpoena results which have been negative for purchasing bomb making materials.”
To top it off, the FBI assessed that Yener likely couldn’t make it to New York from Florida to enact his purported plan to bomb the stock exchange. “Last we were aware is that he did not appear to have the ability to travel independently of borrowing his friends [sic] car temporarily,” an agent wrote in an Oct. 9, 2024 email.
Yener’s lawyers cited what they described as the FBI’s “outrageous conduct” in a motion to dismiss the charges on June 29 of this year—a motion filed after a nine-day jury. A judge denied the motion, but the jury found Yener not guilty on the terrorism charges anyway.
Yener still faces one count of possessing an obscene visual representation of the sexual abuse of children—a charge added in September 2025 to the terrorism counts.
Yener’s lawyers have also fought to have that charge dismissed. “The indictment does not allege, and the discovery does not support, any charge that Mr. Yener possessed any material depicting an actual child. This case involves cartoon pornography—depictions of sexual acts that were generated either by hand drawing or by a computer,” the lawyers argued in a December motion to dismiss, which was unsuccessful.
Yener’s trial for the obscene material is set to begin on August 10.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
