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The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Former extremist, GW researcher arrested on drugs and prostitution charges

A reformed extremist who joined GW’s Program on Extremism earlier this year was arrested on drug, prostitution charges, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Jesse Morton, a former and de-radicalized al-Qaeda recruiter whose hiring in August made national headlines, allegedly had cocaine in his possession when he went to meet a sex worker last month.

University spokeswoman Candace Smith said that Morton is no longer affiliated with GW’s Program on Extremism.

Morton was arrested on Dec. 28 in a sting operation by Fairfax, Va. police, according to court documents cited by the Post. He allegedly answered an ad for a prostitute on the website Backpage.com and was arrested when he arrived at the Governor House Inn & Suites in Falls Church. Police said they found cocaine and a glass pipe in his pack of Marlboro cigarettes, according to The Post.

Morton was charged with possession for manufacturing a controlled substance and residing in a bawdy place, the Post reported.

Morton joined the extremism program as a research fellow after being imprisoned for using his Revolution Muslim website to encourage attacks against the creators of South Park.

Morton was incarcerated on charges related to these threats and released in 2015 after serving less than a third of an 11-and-a-half year sentence for cooperating with government intelligence to identify and investigate other extremists. Morton disavowed extremism, but now faces renewed legal troubles.

“I have deep regret and remorse from my time as an extremist. I cannot change the past, and I can only work to rectify what I’ve done,” Morton told the Hatchet in September.

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