Former U.S. Army soldier Cole Bridges was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Friday for trying to help the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) conduct a deadly ambush on American military forces.
Bridges, 24, provided tactical guidance and support to individuals he believed were ISIS operatives, according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The former soldier planned to assist the terrorist group in facilitating attacks on soldiers deployed in the Middle East.
Bridges, a former cavalry scout assigned to the Third Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia, pled guilty to the charges in June 2023. He had been accused of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and attempting to murder U.S. military personnel. During the proceedings, he expressed remorse for his actions.
Cole Bridges, 24, of Stow, Ohio, was handed down the sentence after a nearly five-hour Manhattan federal court proceeding in which he surprisingly requested he be given a maximum 40-year sentence. Bridges pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in June 2023.
“Honestly, I do believe that I deserve the maximum sentence,” Bridges told Judge Lewis J. Liman. “I know what I did was wrong,” he said, adding he would carry “regret for as long as I live.”
Liman cited numerous facts that he said demonstrated Bridges was “not a hardened criminal” and said he had no actual communications with the Islamic State organization. […]
— Read More: redstate.com
