Men charged with conspiring to help ISIS with Boston plot

BOSTON -- Two men were charged Friday with conspiring to help the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria by plotting with a Boston terror suspect to kill U.S. citizens to support the objectives of the terrorist organization.

Nicholas Rovinski, 24, of Warwick, Rhode Island, was arrested Thursday. David Wright, 25, of Everett, Massachusetts, was arrested last week. Both made a brief appearance in federal court in Boston on Friday. They are scheduled to appear again in court on June 19 for a detention hearing, where prosecutors said they'll ask for Rovinski to be held without bail until his trial because he poses a "significant threat" to public safety.

Rovinski and Wright are charged with conspiring with Usaama Rahim, 26, of Boston, who was killed last week by terror investigators who had him under 24-hour surveillance. Authorities say Rahim lunged at police with a military-style knife, but his family has questioned that account, noting that a knife is not seen in a grainy surveillance video cited by authorities.

Rovinski and Wright, Rahim's nephew, were charged Friday with conspiracy to provide material support to ISIS. Wright told the FBI he met Rovinski about a year ago through Facebook, and they began communicating, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court.

Rovinski did not enter a plea at Friday's appearance. His lawyer declined to comment afterward. But earlier, Rovinski's mother, Lori, told reporters, "It's not true. That's all I can say. It'll all come out."

Wright's lawyer, Jessica Hedges, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment on the new charge.

According to the affidavit, federal authorities had been monitoring the suspects' calls and text messages before police shot Rahim. It says that 30 minutes after Rahim was shot Wright texted Rovinski saying "an emergency took place this morning."

The affidavit says the men initially planned to behead a political activist whom law enforcement officials have identified to CBS News as blogger Pamela Geller.

Rovinski's lawyer, William Fick, declined to comment on the allegations. Rovinski is scheduled to make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court on Friday afternoon.

Wright's lawyer, Jessica Hedges, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment on the new charge. Wright has been in custody since his arrest last week on a charge of conspiracy to destroy evidence. He is scheduled to appear in court for a detention hearing next week.

Wright and Rovinski told authorities that during a meeting with Rahim on May 31 they discussed plans to behead Geller, according to the affidavit.

The meeting took place on a Warwick beach. Authorities believed the meeting was at the beach so their conversations would not be overheard.

Two days later, Rahim called Wright and told him in a recorded conversation that he had "changed plans" and now wanted to attack "those boys in blue," referring to police, either that day or the following day, the affidavit states.

Wright is accused of encouraging Rahim to "be steadfast in his intentions" and to destroy his phone and wipe his laptop computer to prevent law enforcement from searching them.

"In the course of this conversation, Rahim made several statements including his awareness that he might die during the attack," the affidavit states.

About two hours after that conversation, Rahim was approached in a parking lot by Boston police officers and FBI agents. Authorities say he was shot and killed after he pulled out a knife and refused commands to drop the weapon, responding, "you drop yours," the affidavit says.

The complaint says the men targeted Geller after she organized a conference in Texas in May featuring cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims generally believe any physical depiction of the Prophet Muhammad is blasphemous. Two men showed up with assault rifles and began firing, and a police officer shot them to death.

Days later, ISIS publicly condemned Geller and called for her "slaughter."

Using social media, ISIS has called for attacks against residents of countries participating in the U.S.-led coalition against it.

The affidavit says that for the last six months, Rovinski has been posting comments on YouTube and Twitter supporting ISIS. It says that for at least two months, he has viewed videos about making weapons and uploaded them to his YouTube account.

CNN reported that one of its producers exchanged messages with Rovinski in March as part of research on Americans drawn to jihadists online. "I am not violent at heart but push the wrong button and its (sic) not pretty," he wrote, according to CNN.

Authorities said Rovinski indicated on social media that he believed that Americans should die. According to the affidavit, on May 13, shortly after an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia - killing eight people - Rovinski commented on the video of the crash: "Whoever crashed the train deserves a medal!"

The FBI also said in the affidavit that Wright and Rovinski complained about the law prohibiting material support to foreign terror organizations - a crime they are now charged with.

"They made it so general now where they can manipulate and get you ... on material support just for speaking ... positively about (ISIS)," Wright said, according to the affidavit.

During an interview with the FBI after Rahim was killed, Rovinski told agents he converted to Islam two years ago and was drawn to ISIS' teachings "because they represent the more pure and honest form of the religion."