Cole Bridges, also known as Cole Gonzales, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison followed by a decade of supervised release. The 24-year-old from Stow, Ohio, was convicted for attempting to provide material support to ISIS and plotting to murder U.S. military service members. Bridges pleaded guilty on June 14, 2023.
Court documents reveal that Bridges joined the U.S. Army around September 2019 and served as a cavalry scout in the Third Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia. Prior to his enlistment, he had begun engaging with jihadist propaganda online and expressing support for ISIS on social media.
In October 2020, about a year into his military service, Bridges started communicating with an undercover FBI employee posing as an ISIS supporter. He shared his discontent with the U.S. military and offered assistance to ISIS through training advice and sharing parts of a U.S. Army manual meant for combat tactics.
By December 2020, Bridges provided detailed instructions on how purported ISIS fighters could attack U.S. forces in the Middle East. This included diagramming military maneuvers and suggesting ways to fortify an encampment for ambushing U.S. Special Forces using explosives.
In January 2021, Bridges sent videos demonstrating his allegiance to ISIS: one showed him in army gear with an ISIS flag backdrop; another featured him narrating a propaganda speech supporting an anticipated ambush on American troops.
The investigation was conducted by FBI field offices in Washington, Atlanta, and Cleveland with help from various military intelligence units including U.S. Army Counterintelligence and Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sam Adelsberg and Matthew Hellman from the Southern District of New York led the prosecution alongside Trial Attorney Michael Dittoe from the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.