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Former Metro Transit Police Officer's Sentence in Terror Case Could Be Reduced

Nicholas Young was convicted of attempting to provide material support to a terror group and two counts of obstruction of justice

A former D.C. Metro police officer serving 15 years in prison for trying to help the Islamic State could see his sentence reduced after an appeals court threw out two of his convictions.

Nicholas Young was convicted of attempting to provide material support to a terror group and two counts of obstruction of justice.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the terror charge Thursday, but vacated the obstruction charges.

The court said the government failed to show that Young tried to thwart a grand jury investigation.

In 2016, Young sent $245 in gift cards to an account he believed belonged to an ISIS fighter. The man was actually an FBI informant.

The court ordered a new sentencing hearing.

Young grew up in the D.C. suburbs, was raised Catholic but later converted to Islam.

During his trial, the jury was shown a photo of Young wearing a Nazi uniform, a photo of a woman carrying a "God bless Hitler" sign, and a dirtied Israel flag Young allegedly used as a doormat.

The items were among three dozen Nazi artifacts and photos presented by prosecutors during the trial. A counter-terrorism analyst testifying for prosecutors said there are "areas of convergence" between Islamist militancy and Nazism" based on a mutual hatred of Jews.

Young, the first law enforcement officer in the country to be convicted of a terrorism offense, says the Nazi memorabilia "irreparably tarred" him before the jury and violated his right to a fair trial.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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