Terror suspect

Trump, pushing for death penalty, signals terror suspect should be tried in federal court

By LOUIS NELSON

President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested that he would push for the alleged driver in Wednesday’s New York terrorist attack to be prosecuted in a federal court instead of transferred to a military detention facility and demanded again that the suspected terrorist be given the death penalty.

“Would love to send the NYC terrorist to Guantanamo but statistically that process takes much longer than going through the Federal system,” Trump wrote on Twitter Thursday morning. “There is also something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed. Should move fast. DEATH PENALTY!”

A day earlier, Trump said he “would certainly consider” transferring alleged terrorist Sayfullo Saipov to the military detention facility at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, a step potentially fraught with delays and legal hurdles.

Saipov was charged Wednesday for killing eight people and injuring 12 others by driving a rented truck onto a Manhattan bicycle path, an attack law enforcement said was carried out following directives laid out by the Islamic State. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in New York since terrorists flew hijacked planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

The president wrote online Wednesday that Saipov, whose attack ended when he was shot and injured by police, had asked to hang the Islamic State flag in his hospital room. The alleged terrorist “SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY,” Trump wrote on Twitter.