US man pleads guilty to plotting Cleveland bomb attack

A US citizen, who has been accused of plotting a July 4 bomb attack in Cleveland last year, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of trying to provide material support to al-Qaeda terrorists, the Justice Department announced in a press release on Tuesday.

"I'm trying to figure out something that would shake them up on the 4th of July", Demetrius Nathaniel Pitts told an undercover FBI operative posing as an al-Qaeda terrorist, according to the release cited by Sputnik.

Pitts later stated that "what would hit them at their core? Blow up in the, have a bomb, blow up in the 4th of July parade", the release said.

In another meeting, Pitts gave the informant a phone with the reconnaissance photos and videos for the planned attack, "so they could be provided to the al Qaeda brothers," the release said.

Pitts also pleaded guilty of threatening to kill President Donald Trump, the release added.

Pitts is scheduled to be sentenced on February 11, 2020. Under the terms of his guilty plea, he is likely to be sentenced to 14 years in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release, according to the release.