Woman arrested for planning to attack the New York State Capitol: she pledged allegiance to the Islamic State

U.S. authorities have detained this Thursday a woman accused of planning a bomb attack against the Capitol of New York state, as reported by the network ‘Fox News’.

Jessica Bownie , 35, a resident of Albany, the state capital, is accused of attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State . According to the FBI, she confessed that her intention was to conceal a bomb in a DoorDash food delivery bag and carry out the attack while the senators were gathered.

Bownie conducted surveillance on at least five separate occasions over the course of a month around the Capitol, taking photographs and analyzing the security of the area, according to the FBI.

"The intention of the detainee was “to flee to Syria to join other territories controlled by ISIS,” as the FBI has confirmed on its social media.

Kash Patel, FBI chief: “The attack was already in an advanced stage”

By mid-July, the arrested woman contacted an FBI informant posing as an Islamic State facilitator to ask for help in making explosives and revealed her intentions to him.

Kash Patel , head of the FBI, said on his social media that “the attack was already in an advanced stage.” He therefore thanked the federal officers for having been able to prevent “another alleged terrorist attack.”

For her part, the state's governor, Kathy Hochul , thanked both the FBI and the local police who carried out Bownie's arrest and recalled that, given the increase in threats against public officials, security at the Capitol and throughout the state government had been strengthened.

Patel himself has also positively assessed the work of his colleagues for managing to prevent “more than 400 attacks of this kind so far in 2026”, although he clarified that this figure includes countries other than the United States.