Resistance Conspiracy case

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The Resistance Conspiracy case (1988–1990) was a federal case in which six people were charged in connection with the 1983 U.S. Senate bombing and related bombings at Fort McNair and the Washington Navy Yard. The defendants were Marilyn Jean Buck, Linda Sue Evans, Susan Rosenberg, Timothy Blunk, Alan Berkman, and Elizabeth Ann Duke. The group, calling itself the Armed Resistance Unit, said the bombings were meant to cause property damage and they gave warning phone calls; no one was injured. From 1983 to 1985, they also bombed the U.S. Capitol, three military sites in the Washington, D.C. area, and four sites in New York City.

Several of the defendants had been part of the May 19 Communist Organization (also known as the May 19 Coalition or May 19 Movement), a revolutionary group formed in part by former Weather Underground members. That group began as the New York Chapter of the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee and operated from 1978 to 1985.

Arrests and indictments
- On May 11, 1985, Buck and Evans were arrested in Dobbs Ferry, New York, after FBI agents tailed them hoping to find other fugitives. Laura Whitehorn was arrested the same day in a Baltimore apartment rented by Buck and Evans. At that time Rosenberg and Blunk were already in custody on explosives and weapons charges connected with the Brinks case. Berkman and Duke were captured 12 days later near Philadelphia, though Duke jumped bail and disappeared before trial.
- The case became known as the Resistance Conspiracy Case. On May 12, 1988, seven members under arrest were indicted. The indictment said the conspiracy aimed to influence U.S. government policy through violent and illegal means and charged them with bombing the Capitol, three Washington, D.C. area military sites, and four sites in New York City. The Washington, D.C. targets were the National War College at Fort McNair, the Washington Navy Yard Computer Center, and the Washington Navy Yard Officers Club. In New York City, they bombed the Staten Island Federal Building, the Israeli Aircraft Industries Building, the South African consulate, and the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association offices.

Plea deals and sentences
- On September 6, 1990, reports said Whitehorn, Evans, and Buck agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and destruction of government property. Prosecutors dropped bombing charges against Rosenberg, Blunk, and Berkman, who were already serving long terms (Rosenberg and Blunk received 58 years each; Berkman 10) for explosives and weapons offenses. Whitehorn also pleaded guilty to fraud related to possessing false identification documents found by the FBI.
- At the December 6, 1990 sentencing, Whitehorn was given 20 years in prison, and Evans received an additional five years after already serving a 35-year sentence for illegally buying guns. Buck, who was already serving 17 years, was later sentenced to 50 years for the Brinks holdup and other armed robberies.
- Whitehorn was released on parole on August 6, 1999, after just over 14 years. On January 20, 2001, President Bill Clinton commuted the sentences of Evans and Rosenberg.