Justin Nojan Sullivan Pleads Guilty to ISIS Terror Plot

Justin Nojan Sullivan, 20, of Morganton, North Carolina, stood in silence before U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger in Asheville today as he admitted to plotting mass murder in the name of ISIS. The guilty plea on one count of attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries marks the end of a chilling digital trail that led from a small Appalachian town to the war zones of Syria.

Sullivan conspired directly with Junaid Hussain, a now-deceased ISIS operative based in Syria who orchestrated online radicalization campaigns targeting Western extremists. According to court documents, Sullivan began collecting and viewing violent ISIS propaganda—including beheadings—as early as September 2014. He stored the graphic material on his laptop and destroyed religious items belonging to his parents, openly declaring his allegiance to the terrorist group inside his own home.

By June 7, 2015, Sullivan was deep in coordination with Hussain, discussing plans for mass-casualty shootings in North Carolina and Virginia. He turned to social media to advance the plot, unknowingly communicating with an undercover FBI employee (UCE) whom he tried to recruit into the attack. Sullivan argued it was more effective to strike inside the U.S. than to travel overseas to fight, and he urged the UCE to obtain weapons for the operation.

The defendant detailed his operational planning with cold precision. He planned to buy a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle at a gun show in Hickory, North Carolina, and on or about June 20, 2015, attempted to purchase hollow-point ammunition. Court records show Sullivan researched how to build firearm silencers online and asked the UCE to construct functional suppressors to conceal gunfire during the attacks.

Sullivan told the undercover agent he intended to launch the assault within days—at a concert, bar, or club—where he believed as many as 1,000 people could be killed. His ambition was not just violence, but spectacle: Hussain had instructed him to record the massacre and send footage back to ISIS leadership as proof of loyalty and a propaganda tool.

‘Justin Sullivan planned to kill hundreds of innocent people,’ said FBI Special Agent in Charge John A. Strong. ‘He pledged his support to ISIL and took calculated steps to commit a murderous rampage.’ Federal prosecutors, including Acting Assistant Attorney General Mary B. McCord and U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose, emphasized that digital radicalization poses a clear and present danger—one that law enforcement will confront with relentless aggression.