USA v. Williams, Elvin Hunter Bgorn
Seattle, WA

ISIS

Elvin Hunter Bgorn Williams was arrested in May 2021 at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for his alleged efforts to join Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in order to engage in violent acts of terrorism in the Middle East or the United States. In November 2020, a member of a Seattle-area mosque contacted the FBI with concerns about Williams. Williams was using mosque-provided electronic devices to engage in online chats with ISIS radicals and to view ISIS propaganda videos of beheadings and other acts of violence. In November 2020, Williams allegedly swore an oath of allegiance to ISIS. Williams expressed to his associates that if he could not travel overseas, he would commit an attack in the U.S. on behalf of ISIS. He began communicating with those he believed were ISIS recruiters who could get him to an ISIS terror cell in the Middle East or other parts of the world. In early May 2021, Williams booked airline travel from Seattle to Amsterdam and on to Egypt to join ISIS. On Friday May 28, 2021, he went to Sea-Tac Airport to catch the first leg of his international flight. Williams was arrested at the departure gate. Williams pleaded guilty in March 2022 to attempting to provide material support to ISIS. He was sentenced in November 2022 to four years in prison with 15 years of supervised release to follow for providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO), ISIS.