A Virginia woman was taken into custody and charged with making false statements to law enforcement agents about allegations she took to Facebook to promote and aid Islamic State terrorists.
Heather Elizabeth Coffman from Henrico County was scheduled for a Wednesday detention hearing on charges of giving materially false statements about a crime involving terrorism to police, The Associated Press reported.
The FBI alleges Ms. Coffman promoted Islamic State on several Facebook accounts under various names. The posts came under the watch of FBI agents, one of whom then posed as a backer of the terror group, AP said. The agent said Ms. Coffman then discussed the possibility of her husband training and fighting with the Islamic State in Syria. The FBI said she later denied supporting any terrorist groups.
Her attorney, Mark Schmidt, said he hasn’t yet spoken with his client in depth about the charges, but added they seem to only focus on postings — and not any actions that came as a result of the postings.
“This is in connection with Facebook and issues that arose from Facebook,” he said, AP reported. “To the best of my knowledge, Ms. Coffman has never left the country. I don’t know if she even left Virginia.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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