An Albany Woman Allegedly Swore an Oath to ISIS.
Prosecutors Say She Then Scouted the New York State Capitol for a Bomb Attack.
The FBI Was Watching the Whole Time.
On the afternoon of August 19, federal agents arrested Jessica Bowie, 35, as she left a meeting in Albany carrying an inert handgun, ammunition, and what she believed was a live explosive device. According to a criminal complaint unsealed the same day, Bowie had spent the previous month allegedly casing the New York State Capitol in Albany — the building that houses the governor’s office and the state legislature, roughly 150 miles north of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. — as the target of a planned bomb attack aimed at killing New York state senators.
Bowie is charged with one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, ISIS, under the federal material-support statute — a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and lifetime supervised release if she is convicted. She has not been convicted of any crime. Everything below is drawn from the FBI’s criminal complaint and affidavit and from prosecutors’ public statements — allegations, not proven fact.
The case, built by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Albany over more than three months, ended as a reverse sting: agents say they supplied the bomb-shrapnel materials, the firearm, and the inert explosive device themselves, then arrested Bowie the moment she walked away carrying them.
- 5surveillance visitsto the New York State Capitol between July 21 and Aug. 9, 2026, according to the FBI complaint
- 20 yrsmaximum sentencefor the single material-support count Bowie faces if convicted
- $200provided by the FBIto buy a bin of nails as alleged bomb shrapnel at a Rensselaer, NY Home Depot, Aug. 5
- Aug. 19–20arrest to arraignmentBowie was arrested Aug. 19 and made her initial court appearance in Albany the next day
- 1 countchargedattempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization — the sole charge filed as of publication
Bowie converted to Islam roughly five years ago and began going by the name “Aisha Saif,” according to the FBI complaint. Investigators say her alleged radicalization escalated online through the spring of 2026: on May 8, the complaint alleges she exchanged messages about poisoning “infidels.” By late May, prosecutors say she had posted “Praise be to Allah for September 11th” online and recorded audio of herself swearing bayah — a formal oath of allegiance — to ISIS’s leader, in both English and Arabic. The complaint draws a stark contrast: according to her own earlier posts cited in the filing, Bowie once described herself as a young girl waving an American flag in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
On July 16, prosecutors say Bowie made her first contact with an FBI confidential source who was posing online as an ISIS facilitator, telling the source she was “thinking about Jehad more seriously.” That contact, according to the complaint, is what moved the investigation from monitoring an online radicalization into an in-person, monitored plot — one the FBI’s Albany field office says it controlled from that point forward.
Between July 21 and August 9, the complaint alleges, Bowie made five separate surveillance visits to the New York State Capitol — the 19th-century building in downtown Albany that houses the governor’s office and both chambers of the state legislature. Unlike its counterpart in Washington, the New York State Capitol has no dome; a planned rotunda was abandoned mid-construction in the 1880s over structural concerns, leaving the building with its distinctive flat-topped Romanesque and Renaissance Revival roofline. This is the New York State Capitol, not the U.S. Capitol in Washington. Investigators say Bowie photographed the building and its security posture across multiple visits and identified the entrance near Washington Avenue and Hawk Street as a point of access she intended to use.
On August 5, according to the complaint, FBI operatives working the case gave Bowie roughly $200, which she used to buy a bin of nails at a Home Depot in Rensselaer, New York — shrapnel, prosecutors allege, that she intended to pack around an explosive device to maximize casualties.
FBI Albany's Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested Jessica Bowie today for allegedly attempting to provide material support to ISIS after she scouted the New York State Capitol and sought weapons and explosives to carry out an attack.
Eight days later, on August 13, Bowie allegedly asked the undercover operatives for help obtaining a handgun — widening the alleged plot from an explosive device alone to include a firearm as well.
According to the criminal complaint, Bowie was direct with the undercover operatives about her intent. “I want to destroy as much of the building as possible and kill the sena[tors] while they are meeting… I want them to lose a lot of important documents as well,” she allegedly said. In a separate exchange, the complaint quotes her saying, “We definitely want to make sure the senators get killed for sure.” When asked why she hadn’t set her sights on a bigger target — the White House — prosecutors say she explained the state Capitol was the more achievable one: “Ideally it would be the White House with the president, but like, that’s an even harder job.”
Those quotes, as reported from the unsealed complaint, are the clearest statement in the case of who and what Bowie allegedly intended to hit: sitting New York state senators, inside the New York State Capitol in Albany, during a legislative session — not a target in Washington, D.C.
On August 19, Bowie met with the undercover FBI operatives in Albany and handed over an amount the complaint describes as roughly $150 to $350 toward the cost of a firearm. In exchange, agents gave her an inert handgun, ammunition, a magazine, and an inert explosive device along with instructions for its use. FBI agents arrested Bowie as she left the meeting still carrying the items. A related search also recovered knives and a handwritten copy of the bayah oath Bowie had allegedly sworn to ISIS months earlier.
Thanks to the brilliant work of @FBIAlbany and our partners — this FBI stopped yet another alleged terrorist attack.
Governor: Kathy Hochul (D-NY) — thanked the FBI and New York State Police for the arrest and said there was “no immediate threat at this time”; the New York State Police, which provides day-to-day security at the Capitol, reports up through the governor’s office.
FBI Albany Special Agent in Charge Craig Tremaroli, who led the Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation, said: “As alleged in the criminal complaint, Ms. Bowie swore her allegiance to ISIS and developed a detailed plan to attack the New York State Capitol to kill lawmakers and disrupt our government. Make no mistake about it, Ms. Bowie’s alleged plot was serious, it was dangerous, and thanks to FBI Albany’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), it was foiled.” First Assistant U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III of the Northern District of New York added: “The allegations in this complaint are deeply disturbing, that someone would harbor such hatred toward our way of life, and seek to target the New York State Capitol and New York state senators.”
“As alleged, Bowie plotted to deploy an explosive device at the New York State Capitol, intending to kill public officials and to destroy 'as much of the building as possible' before fleeing to ISIS-controlled territory in Syria.”
John A. Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, DOJ National Security Division · Aug. 19, 2026
A New York woman was arrested today and charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS after allegedly plotting to attack the New York State Capitol with an explosive device and a firearm. The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in Albany led the investigation.
Bowie made her initial court appearance in Albany on August 20, one day after her arrest. Her court-appointed federal public defender did not seek bail at that hearing; no ruling on bail or detention had been reported as of publication. No trial date has been set. Bowie is presumed innocent of the charge against her unless and until she is convicted.
Prosecutors say Jessica Bowie swore allegiance to ISIS, made five scouting trips to the New York State Capitol in Albany, and accepted an inert bomb and handgun from FBI operatives before she was arrested walking away with them. She faces one count and up to 20 years if convicted — and as of publication, no bail ruling, no plea, and no trial date. This was the New York State Capitol in Albany the complaint describes, not the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
