Lesch gave Alpha News a hypothetical situation:

“In a riot after a hockey championship, a group of fans leave the stadium, and some of them throw bottles and block traffic. In the process, a few (not all) of them deface property in a manner that constitutes a felony (over $1000 in damage). A motorist, frustrated with being blocked in traffic by a group of drunk hockey fans, decides he’s tired of waiting and steps on the gas, running through the crowd, killing one of the revelers (who was not doing anything wrong other than picking the wrong crowd to hang out with, but who would likely have been charged with accessory to Criminal Damage to Property had he survived). Did the dead fan commit an act of terrorism? Most reasonable people would say no. But the bill that passed yesterday would allow an insurance company (who has a financial incentive to deny claims) to decide that it falls under the law which would expressly permit the insurer to deny the claim to the deceased’s grieving widow and family.”

But Rep. Omar gave no response to Alpha News as top why she cast her vote and it was weeks after she asked for leniency for nine men who were convicted of attempting to join the Islamic State.

The representative, who has been accused of being anti-Semitic, suggested using compassion rather than punishment against men who tried to join the terror group when she was a state representative, Fox News reported.

Embattled congressional freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., once asked a judge to show leniency toward a group of Minnesota men accused of trying to join the Islamic State terror group.

“The best deterrent to fanaticism is a system of compassion,” she wrote at the time. “We must alter our attitude and approach; if we truly want to effect change, we should refocus our efforts on inclusion and rehabilitation.”

The nine Minnesota men were facing decades in prison after being accused in 2015 of making plans, including buying fake passports, in an effort to travel to Syria and fight for ISIS, which was at its peak level of activity and held territory in Syria and Iraq.

Omar, who was then a Minnesota state representative, was part of a group that sent letters to Judge Michael Davis urging him to give shorter sentences, arguing that harsher penalties would only lead to more people joining the terror group.

“Incarcerating 20-year-old men for 30 or 40 years is essentially a life sentence. Society will have no expectations of the to-be 50- or 60-year-old released prisoners; it will view them with distrust and revulsion,” read Omar’s letter to the judge, as obtained by FOX 9 of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

“Such punitive measures not only lack efficacy, they inevitably create an environment in which extremism can flourish, aligning with the presupposition of terrorist recruitment,” she added.

She said this even after one of the men charged said that “I was not going there to pass out medical kits or food. I was going strictly to fight and kill on behalf of the Islamic State.”

But Omar argued “A long-term prison sentence for one who chose violence to combat direct marginalization is a statement that our justice system misunderstands the guilty. A restorative approach to justice assesses the lure of criminality and addresses it.”