Jacksonville, Florida – United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces the arrest of Joshua Ryne Goldberg (20, Orange Park, Florida) for distributing information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

According to the criminal complaint, Goldberg was in contact, through on-line communications, with an individual who law enforcement knew to be a Confidential Human Source (CHS). Between the months of July and September 2015, Goldberg distributed information to the CHS on how to manufacture a bomb. He instructed the CHS to make a pressure cooker bomb and fill it with nails, metal, and other items dipped in rat poison. Goldberg instructed the CHS to place the bomb at an upcoming memorial in Kansas City, Missouri that was commemorating the September 11, 2001 attacks.

A complaint is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) and the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. Members of the Jacksonville JTTF include the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Highway Patrol, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin C. Frein of the Middle District of Florida, with assistance provided by Trial Attorney Mara Kohn of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

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Detention and Preliminary Hearing set for Tuesday, September 15, 2015, at 2 pm before United States Magistrate Judge James R. Klindt (Courtroom 5D) at the Bryan Simpson U.S. Courthouse, 300 North Hogan Street, Jacksonville, Florida.

Update following 9/15/2015 hearing:

Joshua Ryne Goldberg has formally retained private counsel. The Federal Public Defender’s Office has been removed as the attorney of record and Shorstein, Lasnetski & Gihon, LLC attorneys at law have filed a notice of appearance on behalf of the defendant.

Today, U.S. Magistrate Judge James R. Klindt ordered a 30-day competency evaluation, at a federal medical center, for the defendant.

Goldberg will remain in federal custody.

No future court date was set.

No further information available at this time.