New Jersey man arrested for threatening to blow up Trump Tower, Israeli...

A 20-year-old New Jersey man who threatened to blow up Trump Tower and the Israeli consulate in New York was arrested Wednesday, the state’s federal prosecutor announced.

Investigators say they have found a series of threatening messages published on social networks by Jonathan Xie, 20, in which he sympathized with the Al Qassam brigades , the armed wing of the Islamist Hamas movement.

Xie, originally from Basking Ridge, a community in New Jersey, was charged with two counts of attempted support of a terrorist group, punishable by 20 years in prison each, false testimony and transmiting a threat.

“The threat of violent extremists, self-radicalized in the United States, remains persistent,” prosecutor Craig Carpenito said in a statement.

Jonathan Xie, New Jersey man arrested for making terrorist threats.

In February, he said he wanted to join the US military “to learn to kill.” In April, he posted on Instagram two photos of the Trump Tower superimposed on a message saying he wanted to “ bomb Trump Tower”.

On a photo, he wrote the question: “Should we blow up the Trump Tower?” and invited to answer “yes” or “no” in a survey accompanied by an emoji of a bomb.

In April, also on Instagram, he wore a Hamas flag and a gun, saying he wanted to go to “a pro-Israel parade” and “kill everyone,” according to the prosecutor.

The latest attempt on an attack in New York dates back to December 2017 when a Bangladeshi man, inspired by the Islamic State, tried to blow up a bomb in the corridors of the Times Square subway, but the suspect was seriously injured.