FBI says it handed Albany a dud. The Capitol plot is a charge, not a verdict.

Federal prosecutors in Albany say they stopped an ISIS-inspired bomb plot aimed at the New York State Capitol before it left the staging room. Jessica Bowie, 35, of Albany, made her first appearance Thursday on a charge of attempting to provide material support to ISIS. She has been charged. She has not been convicted.

The Justice Department says Bowie was arrested Wednesday, Aug. 19, as she took possession of what she believed was an explosive device meant for the Capitol and for state senators. The FBI says the device she was handed was inert. The case is a sting. Confidential sources, not a lone walk-in, sat with her on the buys and the handoff.

DOJ quotes Bowie, as alleged: “I want to destroy as much of the building as possible and kill the senators while they are meeting. I want them to lose a lot of important documents as well.” A second line in the same release: she wanted it to “have a affect on the American system. And destroy some of the taghut.” The spelling is the government’s.

The complaint, as summarized by DOJ, says she recorded a bayah, an oath of allegiance, to ISIS and put it online. On an account the FBI tied to her, the release quotes: “Praise be to Allah for September 11th” and “When I can migrate, I will poison these infidels.” Those are alleged posts, not findings by a jury.

Investigators say she walked the Capitol grounds more than once and photographed the building. Fox and AP, working off the same complaint, say she talked about hiding a device in a food-delivery bag and hitting a day when the chamber was full. This desk is treating those details as allegations in a charging paper, not as proven acts.