My name is Jason Fong, and I am an American Muslim who was the target of an FBI sting operation. I was later accused of providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations, a charge that was ultimately dropped.
My journey has been a unique one. I served six years in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. During my service, I began independently studying languages, starting with Russian in 2016 and Arabic in 2018. Learning Arabic deepened my interest in Islaam, leading me to attend the Islaamic Center of Irvine. Throughout 2018 and 2019, I explored opportunities in military intelligence and special operations, but those paths ultimately closed themselves off to me.
This disillusionment, coupled with my involvement in the online “Boogaloo” meme community, led me to critically examine U.S. foreign and domestic policy. I began questioning how our tax dollars were being spent and became a staunch anti-war advocate, opposing interventionist foreign policies that often come at the expense of the American people. By late 2019, I decided not to re-enlist in the Marine Corps, choosing instead to embark on a new chapter focused on what resonated most deeply with me during my military service: Islaam. I officially reverted in early 2020.
My legal ordeal began when the FBI, utilizing paid informants and a New York Police Department (NYPD) undercover agent, started monitoring me following my reversion. I first encountered these individuals in an online Instagram group chat for a Muslim meme page in late 2019, before I officially reverted. I then created my own Signal group chat, intending it for the self-defense of Muslim Americans, their families, and religious communities in response to the 2019 Christchurch Massacre in New Zealand. Our conversations primarily revolved around weapon safety, basic marksmanship, hypothetical “SHTF” (shit hit the fan) scenarios—influenced by the online Boogaloo meme community—Islaamic jurisprudence, and occasionally, geopolitics.
However, the informants skewed the focus, exaggerating geopolitics as the group’s main topic. They then began introducing discussions about foreign groups like Hay’at Tahrir ish-Shaam (HTS), Al-Shabaab, and Malḥamah, subtly suggesting that support for these groups was a litmus test for a “true Muslim.” I frequently argued with these provocateurs. During Ramaḍaan, a time when Muslims are religiously obligated to give to charity, their requests for me to teach them how to make explosives and share a donation link for HTS made me deeply uncomfortable. I expelled and blocked them from the group, forming a new chat. The NYPD undercover agent remained, as I never suspected him of ill intent since he never asked me to engage in illegal activities.
Despite my efforts, the topic of discussion had already been poisoned by the FBI’s provocateurs. Conversations inevitably drifted towards the injustice faced by Palestinians. In conducting a quick Google search on the governing authority in Gaza fending for the Palestinians, I ended up sharing a link to a publicly available website, seemingly run by Al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas’s military wing), remarking, “I think this is a cause we can all get behind.”
Just three days later, an FBI SWAT team raided me on my way to work. Simultaneously, another SWAT team breached my home, pointing loaded rifles at my family. I spent five months in state pretrial custody on state gun charges related to an unregistered AR-style rifle and 30-round magazines. Subsequently, I was charged federally with one ten-year count of Concealing Terrorist Support (18 U.S.C. 2339C[c]) and transferred to federal pretrial custody for another ten months.
In August 2021, after extensive litigation, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted me bail, overturning the district judge’s decision to side with the prosecution. I battled my case for twenty-nine months while under house arrest, unable to work or even attend religious services, only permitted to pursue online college courses. After forcing the state prosecutor to drop the state charges in April 2022, the federal prosecutor superseded with four twenty-year counts of Attempting to Provide Material Support to Foreign Terrorist Organizations (18 U.S.C. 2339B). I offered to plead guilty to one count of Providing False Statements to a Federal Official (18 U.S.C. 1001), but the prosecution rejected the offer, claiming it didn’t match my conduct.
My legal team, Kenney Legal Defense, in collaboration with the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), worked with me in preparing for trial in January 2023. We raised substantial concerns about free speech and what we contended was discriminatory prosecution. We actively challenged the government’s investigative tactics, including allegations of targeting an online Muslim minor in the group chat and questioning the background of the undercover operatives. Facing a potential eighty-year prison sentence—essentially a life sentence—the stress of this situation was immense.
My initial trial resulted in a mistrial when Bratz CEO Isaac Larian unexpectedly interrupted the proceedings on the third day. This dramatic interruption occurred precisely during the cross-examination of the government’s primary informant provocateur. The informant was struggling to provide direct ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers to simple questions, particularly those concerning his targeting of a minor from the chat group (he had even driven in person from Alabama to Florida to meet with this minor, despite being an adult), which visibly irritated the jury and caused them to scowl at him. Amidst this tense atmosphere, Mr. Larian burst into the courtroom as if he had been told he could enter. The judge, visibly flustered, blurted out to Mr. Larian that he could not be in the courtroom because the trial concerned “national security”—a detail the jury was emphatically not supposed to know. This breach of protocol was particularly egregious given that the court doors were meant to be locked and guarded by a U.S. Marshal and an FBI agent, with anyone not directly involved in the immediate matter to be redirected to a downstairs courtroom to listen. On that specific day, the side rooms typically used for attorney meetings were inexplicably filled with FBI agents, not Marshals. Although the full blame for the security lapse was ultimately laid on the U.S. Marshals, the circumstances suggested a deeper issue: the government did not like the jury’s reaction and, thus, forced a mistrial.
Before a second trial could commence, the government, likely reeling from the informant’s poor performance and the jury’s negative reaction, withdrew him from the stand. Despite setting another trial date for March 2023, the government ultimately conceded that they had violated my due process rights by not allowing me to view all discovery evidence against me prior to my first trial. Cornered, they suddenly and conveniently deemed a false statement charge more appropriate to describe my conduct. Critically, all material support of terrorism charges against me were ultimately dropped. I later entered a guilty plea to Making False Statements to a Federal Official in an Investigation Involving International Terrorism (18 U.S.C. 1001[a][2]), reducing my potential sentencing exposure from eighty years to eight years. On November 27, 2023, I was sentenced to forty-six months imprisonment, with ten months already credited for pretrial incarceration. I was released from prison to a halfway house on December 3, 2024, and transitioned to my official address of record on June 18, 2025.
This case holds significant legal precedent as it represents the first instance since 9/11 where “Material Support” charges were dismissed in an undercover operation targeting an American Muslim. While the FBI may still consider it a “win” because I was found guilty of something and served time, I see it as close to a win as one can get in such a situation. I have since been notified that the FBI is still investigating me, but I am not worried about them, given that my priority is to care for my family, get my life back on track, and return to college full-time while working part-time.
Given recent events, I am committed to raising awareness about deceptive police practices by the FBI and its paid agent provocateurs. This issue resonates deeply with me, especially since I was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in 2022 during trial preparation. Cases like that of Humzah Mashkoor, another Muslim diagnosed with ASD, are particularly alarming. He was targeted by the FBI as a minor and ultimately convinced to engage in illegal activity as an adult, leading to his arrest and charges of material support in late 2023.
Even more recently, amidst protests against the injustices in Gaza and the use of American tax dollars to support these injustices, American Muslims like Muṣṭafaa Zaydaan and Maḥmood Khaleel have been unfairly targeted by federal agencies simply for voicing their political opinions in attending pro-Palestinian protests. This pattern of behavior is a direct consequence of America’s post-9/11 foreign policy and the Global War on Terrorism—the same policy which has led to the deaths of millions of innocent people, without tangible solutions, and has accrued trillions of dollars in national debt. Compounded by constant anti-Muslim scaremongering in American media and by well-funded domestic (Jewish and Christian) politico-religious groups, counterterrorism departments within agencies like the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are incentivized to “create and catch” terrorists to justify their funding by American taxpayers.
My journey has been challenging, but it has only strengthened my resolve to speak out against government overreach and to advocate for the rights of all Americans, particularly those from marginalized communities. Despite the immense challenges I’ve faced, my faith and the support of my family and community have been my unwavering anchors. I am committed to rebuilding my life and contributing to a society where justice and understanding prevail over fear and prejudice, and where due process and civil liberties are truly guaranteed for everyone.
