Lawyers offer bizarre explanation for why NJ jock allegedly pledged loyalty to ISIS

The lawyers for a New Jersey jock charged with pledging allegiance to ISIS bizarrely claimed his obsession with the terror group stemmed from wanting to be “on a team again” — following a brain injury from football.

Tomaskann Jimenez-Guzel’s defense team said the 19-year-old accused wannabe jihadist was vulnerable to being brainwashed because of “an extensive history of traumatic brain injuries” from getting battered as a starting defensive end on Montclair High School’s football team.

Jimenez-Guzel, who was likely headed for Division I college football, lost his sense of purpose, identity and community after he was forced to retire from the sport in 2023 over his injuries — which left a void that other aspiring terrorists filled, the court papers from Monday claim.

“Lost, Tomaskaan looked to the internet and religion to make sense of the world and find connection,” the filing claims. “He became socially isolated, spending hours reading about international politics online. He followed online rabbit holes to dark corners of the Internet, including a number of TikTok live group chats where users espoused extremist views and disseminated ISIS propaganda.”

“He wanted to feel like he was on a team again, bonded closely to others, with a shared sense of purpose,” the lawyers said.

The defense lawyers made the unusual arguments in an 18-page letter asking Magistrate Judge José Almonte to release Jimenez-Guzel — the son of a UN diplomat who heads a women’s business agency — from the federal lockup he’s been held at since his November arrest.

They asked that he be released on $500,000 bond to home confinement at his retired international development lawyer dad’s in Maryland — plus the additional precautions of GPS tracking and monitoring of his online activities, the lawyers suggested.

Jimenez-Guzel would also enter a de-radicalization treatment program called Parents for Peace Program, under the defense team’s proposal.

The lawyers claimed he’s been plagued by migraines from his brain injury that aren’t being properly treated in jail. They insisted he’s not a danger to the community.

Jimenez-Guzel is being given the wrong medication for the migraines which are made worse by the bright fluorescent lights in his cell, periodic blaring alarms, and the “screams and cries” of other inmates nearby, the filing claims.

Prior to his arrest, Jimenez-Guzel had been on a trial of monthly injections for the migraines and he’d been ordered to undergo additional testing — which never happened because of his arrest, the lawyers said.

His doctor found he has “objective [cognitive] impairment” and “functional impairment,” the court documents claim.

He was arrested in November on charges he swore his loyalty to ISIS, planned to move to the Middle East to assemble a group of violent jihadists and threatened violence against Jewish people and other non-Muslims.

And despite his online activity, he never hurt anyone and he never would — especially given the pain he’s already caused his family, the document claims.

His history shows “him to be a young person with deep family and community roots, a good student, a responsible son and brother, and a person who can be trusted by the Court to comply with all conditions, particularly given how much his family has already suffered following his arrest and how loathe he would be to place his family and those who support him in any further jeopardy,” the court papers claim.

“To say he was a misguided, immature teenager is not to minimize the seriousness of the allegations but to make clear to the Court that he had no intention of ever hurting anyone, and that he has never in fact hurt anyone,” his lawyers wrote.

Jimenez-Guzel was arrested alongside Milo Sedarat, 19, the son of a noted Iranian-American poet who is also from Montclair, a leafy suburb about 30 minutes from Manhattan.

Sedarat was allegedly infuriated about the fact that his mother had Jewish friends and was accused of claiming that he wanted to execute “500 Jews” and force their wives and kids into slavery, a criminal complaint alleged.

He also said he wanted to use his car to mow down a pro-Israel march in Montclair — which is NJ Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s hometown, prosecutors claimed.

Sedarat, Jimenez-Guzel and another defendant, Saed Ali Mirreh, 19, of Washington state, chatted in online groups with others from around the world — including from Finland, Sweden and the UK — about migrating to Syria, building a group of ISIS-inspired terrorists and carrying out violence against non-believers.

Jimenez-Guzel and Mirreh are charged with conspiracy and attempt to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and face up to 40 years behind bars if convicted on all counts.

Sedarat was hit with two counts of transmitting a threat in interstate and foreign commerce and could face 10 years behind bars if convicted on both charges.

The New Jersey US Attorney’s Office didn’t immediately return a request for comment Thursday.