Terror suspect Adel Daoud's offer of guilty but-not-really is shunned by US

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Accused terrorist Adel Daoud is ready to plead guilty to a downtown Chicago mass murder plot, as long as he doesn't have to actually admit he did it.

Federal prosecutors on Thursday roundly opposed Daoud's use of a scarcely used legal tactic known as an "Alford plea" that allows defendants to admit there is enough evidence for a conviction without admitting wrongdoing.

Daoud, 25, was initially charged with trying to detonate a car bomb outside a Loop bar in 2012. Subsequently, he faced charges of soliciting the murder of the undercover federal agent who worked the sting case and an additional charge of trying to kill an fellow inmate in the federal lock up. Wound through the case against Daoud the past six years has been a stream of psych examinations and challenges to his mental competency. He was eventually determined to be competent.

A court hearing on the change of plea is scheduled for Friday afternoon in Chicago, as well as a request by Daoud's attorneys to combine all of the federal cases against him. The government opposes that request as well in newly-filed court documents on Thursday.

"On September 14, 2012, defendant attempted to detonate a car bomb in downtown Chicago. Defendant's goal in doing so was to kill hundreds of people and make international news" prosecutors state in their new filing. "Approximately two months later, while in custody, defendant attempted to arrange the murder of a Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent." Then in 2015 authorities say they determined that Daoud "fashioned weapons out of toothbrushes and attacked a fellow inmate, attempting to kill him because the inmate had drawn pictures of the Prophet Muhammad."

Those three cases form the core of an unusual terrorism prosecution that will not go forward if Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman rules in favor of Daoud's desire to plead guilty without actually admitting guilt.

The Hillside man was a teenager when arrested by the FBI following the sting operation. During the past few years he has been in regular contact with the ABC7 I-Team, by phone and by letter.

Daoud has been has complained to the I-Team that the government is composed of "alien reptiles from another planet who worship the devil." He appears obsessed with "lizard people" who control the United States.

In one call from prison Daoud told the I-Team that he had been "kidnapped" by the government because he is Muslim and wanted to publicly announce that he was backing then candidate Donald Trump for president.

Daoud's attorney Tom Durkin declined to discuss the case.