With a name like Jonathan Hunter Kramer, he certainly would not fit the image of an ISIS fighter. But in the U.S., it might have helped him fly under the radar of the authorities. But it seems that’s not the route Kramer wanted to take, and so federal law enforcement officials say Kramer decided to go by the name “Hamza Al Rashid.” The 21-year-old was just arrested on Saturday, September 12, and charged with receiving a firearm and ammo in support of a terrorist organization, namely ISIS.
Kramer is listed as living in Valencia, Pa., which is about a 15-minute drive from the Butler Farm Show grounds where candidate Donald Trump was shot at a campaign rally on July 13, 2024. This is unusual as Butler County is one of the more red counties in the country.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Kramer is now charged with intent to use a firearm to commit a felony or the crime of terrorism, which includes providing, attempting to provide, and conspiring to provide material in support of a terrorist organization, among other charges.
In a statement, the DOJ said, “FBI agents interdicted Kramer this weekend as he returned to a hotel in possession of three 30-round capacity rifle magazines and five boxes of rifle ammunition. The FBI then executed search warrants, seized a semiautomatic rifle and ammunition from his hotel room, and arrested him.”
FBI Director Kash Patel added, “The subject in this case was allegedly plotting a violent attack in support of ISIS — engaging with ISIS propaganda online, building attack concepts, and repeatedly expressing extremist rhetoric — all while acquiring weapons believed to be in preparation of the attack.”
In the DOJ’s criminal complaint in the case, it indicates that Kramer already had a rifle in his possession, along with 190 rounds of ammunition.
An affidavit that was filed with the criminal complaint revealed that Kramer has been on the FBI’s radar since 2023, when, as a minor, he was charged and “adjudicated delinquent by Pennsylvania state authorities for his role in a plot to commit a mass casualty incident and for possessing child sexual abuse material.”
According to the DOJ, on March 19 of this year, after his release from a juvenile detention facility, the FBI received an anonymous tip that Kramer’s behavior was “troubling.” The tipster said that Kramer was ordering “mysterious” packages and "talking to his friends from before” he had been incarcerated.
In its statement, the DOJ said, “Subsequent investigation confirmed that Kramer had been using the online persona of ‘Hamza Al Rashid’ who claimed affiliation with ISIS, offered to share explosive manuals with others, and expressed his intent to prepare for his ‘mission’ and that he was just missing a ‘weapon.’”
On Saturday, the day after the nation marked the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the American homeland, the FBI’s surveillance detail watched Kramer leave his home while carrying a bag and taking a rideshare to a local store where he bought a disposable phone.
The FBI reported that he left that store and then met up with someone in the store’s parking lot. That’s where the DOJ says he obtained a “long black bag from the trunk of a vehicle.”
From there, the DOJ says that the FBI followed Kramer to a nearby hotel in Cranberry Township, Pa., where the feds say Kramer paid cash for a room.
“Witnesses from both the store and hotel noted Kramer’s bag making a metallic clicking sound when he placed it down,” said the DOJ. “After checking into his room, Kramer traveled to a sporting goods store and was observed by the FBI at the gun counter.”
The FBI lay in wait at Kramer’s hotel, and upon his return, they met him in the hotel parking lot where they say he was carrying two bags that the FBI then seized. In the end, the FBI reported that it confiscated a semiautomatic rifle, five rifle magazines, two of which were already loaded, a rifle bipod and scope, a prayer rug, and about 30 knives.
Along with all of this, the FBI reported that it found “a handwritten note stating ‘DoNt look For me[.] IDK what I did buT I cant live In constant Fear[.]’”
Kramer has been arraigned in federal court, and the DOJ has requested that he be held without bond prior to trial on the assertion that he is a danger to the community.
One of the more concerning things about this particular story has less to do with the story itself, but rather the reminder it provides of just how the Biden administration and the left had abused the power they had over the FBI and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
It shouldn’t be a pleasant surprise that the FBI is just doing its job, but it is refreshing. Under the Trump administration and director Kash Patel, the FBI is once again making news for arrests like this, preventing mass shootings and acts of terror. Under Biden's DOJ, the FBI was better known for being weaponized against American citizens and the left's political foes.
All of this is a reminder of how badly we continue to need Republicans in positions of power in Washington. Who knows what might have happened in this case if the left were running the country?
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