WASHINGTON — The feds have a mountain of evidence against alleged homegrown terrorist Elias Rodriguez, who is charged with gunning down a pair of young Israeli diplomats outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC in May, prosecutors revealed.
Rodriguez, 31, appeared in DC federal court on Thursday for a 10-minute hearing while wearing an orange jumpsuit, glasses and sporting a beard — just three blocks from where the cold-blooded killings took place.
He pleaded not guilty to murder and hate crime charges.
Judge Randolph Moss said Rodriguez’ case would be designated “complex” due to the “massive” amount of evidence in the case — which included 1.5 million documents, 450 MB of data and another 106MB of data from an iPhone, according to prosecutors.
The accused killer only spoke to say “Yes” and “No, your honor” to answer the judge’s questions as he was read his rights.
The Chicago native — whose vicious antisemitism was forged in the crucible of far-left politics — shouted “Free, free Palestine” after witnesses and prosecutors say he executed Yaron Lischinsky, 28, and Sarah Milgrim, 26 with nearly two-dozen shots on May 21.
The two lovers, who were about to get engaged, were killed as they left the American Jewish Committee’s ACCESS Young Diplomats Reception in the heart of DC around 9 p.m., where they discussed ideas for bringing more aid into Gaza.
Rodriguez had flown to DC from Chicago with a handgun in his checked luggage and bought a ticket for the event three hours before it started, according to court papers.
As the couple lay helpless on the ground, Rodriguez allegedly positioned himself over them and continued firing.
He followed Milgrim as she tried to crawl away and reloaded his 9-mm pistol and shot her again as she desperately attempted to escape, charging documents alleged.
He then dropped the weapon and ran into the museum, where bystanders who thought he was a distraught witness to the attacks rushed to offer him comfort and assistance.
“He was soaking wet. He was wearing a suit, glasses, brownish-black hair. He was pretty much in a state of shock. He sat by himself. He was pacing,” Yoni Kalin, 31, a witness inside the event, told The Post.
But when police arrived, witnesses said Rodriguez produced a keffiyeh scarf from his bag and defiantly proclaimed, “I did this. I did this for Gaza. Free, free Palestine. From the river to the sea and there’s only one solution, intifada revolution” as he was cuffed and taken into custody.
Rodriguez was well-known to Chicago law enforcement as a left-wing rabble-rouser, attending various protests dating back years, sources told The Post at the time of the killings.
He had ties to Party for Socialism and Liberation, a radical left-wing group which has organized anti-Israel protests and regularly posts antisemitic rhetoric on social media, including writing, “End the genocide. Israel out of Gaza now” just hours before the shooting.
PSL disavowed any connection to Rodriguez in a social media post a day after the diplomats were murdered.
His indictment, which was unsealed last month, includes notice of special findings that would allow the Justice Department to potentially pursue the death penalty, despite the district abolishing capital punishment in 1981.
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