ORLANDO, Fla. — The acquittal by a federal jury of Noor Salman, the widow of the man who gunned down dozens of people at the Pulse nightclub two years ago, handed federal prosecutors on Friday the rarest of defeats: a loss in a terrorism case.
After the verdict, two of Ms. Salman’s defense lawyers, Charles D. Swift and Linda Moreno, said in an interview that prosecutors had offered their client a plea deal in the weeks leading up to the trial but she had refused to accept it, insisting on her innocence.
— The acquittal by a federal jury of Noor Salman, the widow of the man who gunned down dozens of people at the Pulse nightclub two years ago, handed federal prosecutors on Friday the rarest of defeats: a loss in a terrorism case.
In her supposed confession, Ms. Salman told F.B.I. agents that she and Mr. Mateen had scouted Pulse as a target for the June 12, 2016, attack, yet investigators apparently knew just days later that there was no evidence to corroborate that.
After the verdict, two of Ms. Salman’s defense lawyers, Charles D. Swift and Linda Moreno, said in an interview that prosecutors had offered their client a plea deal in the weeks leading up to the trial but she had refused to accept it, insisting on her innocence.
The prosecutors, James D. Mandolfo and Sara C. Sweeney, declined to comment, other than to thank jurors for their work and say they respected their decision. From the start, Ms. Salman had insisted she had nothing to do with her husband’s rampage.
The outcome was even more striking because the not-guilty verdict came from jurors in Orlando, Fla., where Omar Mateen’s rampage left 49 people dead and 53 others injured, the worst terrorist attack on American soil since Sept. 11, 2001.
The 31-year-old defendant wiped tears from her eyes after the verdict on the first charge was read. By the time the judge’s clerk finished, Ms. Salman openly sobbed, hugging her lawyers and burying her face in their arms. They, too, wept. She later left the courthouse with Fritz Scheller, another one of her lawyers.
The national average conviction rate is 92.5 percent , according to the report. Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a June 2016 attack on an Orlando, Fla., nightclub.
After news of the verdict spread, a small group gathered outside Pulse, which has remained shuttered since the shooting, holding signs declaring, “We will not let hate win.”
Jurors unanimously rejected government charges that Ms. Salman had helped her husband plan his violent assault in the name of the Islamic State — a narrative countered by her family’s claims that she was kept in the dark about her husband’s secrets and was home sleeping when the attack occurred.
Noor Salman, the widow of the gunman who killed 49 people at an Orlando nightclub in 2016, was found not guilty Friday of obstruction and aiding and abetting by attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization. Salman had faced up to life in prison if she was convicted. The charges she was acquitted of included lying to ...
Salman had faced up to life in prison if she was convicted. The charges she was acquitted of included lying to the FBI and aiding her husband in the attack.
Omar Mateen killed 49 people in June 2016 at the Pulse nightclub, a gay club, in Orlando, Fla. (Reuters) Salman's hands were shaking as she walked into the courtroom and she appeared extremely emotional when the verdict was announced.
Salman's defense attorneys argued Salman's statement was a "false confession" because her lawyers were not present. She was questioned by the FBI for more than 11 hours. The jury did not hear Salman's statements to the FBI because the agent, Ricardo Enriquez, did not record them, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Salman did not testify in her defense. Fox News' Terace Garnier, Allie Raffa and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Kathleen Joyce is a breaking/trending news producer for FoxNews.com.
Widow of Pulse nightclub gunman found not guilty. Noor Salman, the widow of the gunman who killed 49 people at an Orlando nightclub in 2016, was found not guilty of obstruction and aiding and abetting by attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization.
Since the beginning, Salman claimed she had nothing to do with the massacre. Prosecutors relied mostly on a confession the widow gave to the FBI just hours after the rampage when she admitted she knew about Mateen "acquiring weapons, watching Islamic State videos and discussing possible locations in apparent preparation" for the attack, The New York Times reported.
office, in Fort Pierce, Florida, where she was questioned for nearly a dozen hours. She never asked for an attorney. She never asked to leave. For the first three and a half hours, she operated under the assumption that she could be returning home to her husband—the man who raped her, she said, who threatened to take her son, who threatened to take her life. The man who strangled her and controlled her daily activities. And more than anything, perhaps, the man who showed her, in 2013—when the F.B.I. questioned and then cleared him for suspicious comments that he had made in support of violent extremism—how he was capable of outsmarting the system, because the system had let him go. For those first three and a half hours, before she knew for certain that her husband was dead, her senses were geared toward her and her son’s survival.
Salman was being tried for obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting her husband, Omar Mateen, who murdered forty-nine people at Pulse night club before being shot dead by police. Last Friday, a jury acquitted her on all counts.
agent and that Salman signed after nearly twelve hours of questioning. The average F.B.I. interrogation lasts ninety minutes, Charles Swift pointed out, in his closing argument.
Occam’s razor is a problem-solving doctrine that reasons that when there are multiple hypotheses to any one question, the simplest explanation is usually right. It was at once a metaphor for the trial itself and a parallel for the woman at the center of it. Salman was being tried for obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting her husband, ...
When they arrive, often to their dismay and annoyance, the victim begins to scream at them to go away, to tell them they aren’t wanted, even to holler obscenities at them. This happens even when a victim’s physical injuries—black eyes, bloody wounds—are obvious.
For those first three and a half hours, before she knew for certain that her husband was dead, her senses were geared toward her and her son’s survival. Salman did not know the extent of Mateen’s carnage, nor how sprawling the investigation into the massacre would become.
Salman entered the F.B.I. office believing herself the wife of an abuser , and learned that she was a widow. Suddenly, she no longer lived under the authoritarian rule of a man who watched grisly beheading videos on his phone while at work. Salman’s defense attorneys used very little of her history of abuse in their arguments, because the larger point for them was to convince jurors that she did not know of his plans before the attack unfolded. But from my viewpoint her victimhood was both entirely pertinent and shockingly disregarded by both the F.B.I. investigators and, later, by the federal prosecutors who chose to put her on trial.
Ultimately, though, the jury sided with the defense anyway, acquitting Noor Salman of both charges: aiding and abetting the provision of material support to a foreign terrorism organization — in this case, the Islamic State, to whom Omar Mateen pledged his allegiance during the attack — and obstruction of justice.
Salman was the only person charged in connection with the massacre that left 50 people — including her husband, Omar Mateen — dead at Pulse nightclub. She stood accused of helping Mateen prepare for and plan the 2016 massacre at the nightclub and of obstructing investigators' efforts after the killing. Her defense team argued that far ...
Noor Salman, Orlando Nighclub Shooter's Widow, Cleared Of All Charges : The Two-Way Prosecutors had accused Noor Salman of obstructing justice and helping her husband, Omar Mateen, plan the 2016 attack that left 50 people, including Mateen, dead.
Noor Salman, widow of the gunman who opened fire on an Orlando nightclub in 2016, has been found not guilty on both the counts she faced. U.S. District Judge Paul Byron announced the verdict Friday, roughly one month after the trial opened. Salman was the only person charged in connection with the massacre that left 50 people — including her ...
Orlando Nightclub Shooter's Father Was FBI Informant, Say Lawyers For Gunman's Widow. Among those key details, according to the defense filing, was the fact that Mateen's father had worked as a confidential informant for the FBI at various points over more than a decade leading right up to the June 2016 shooting.
Her defense team argued that far from being an eager collaborator, Salman was instead a "simple woman" with a low I Q, susceptible to influence and abused by Mateen. While prosecutors asserted that Noor had given misleading statements to state and federal investigators, the defense maintained that she had been manipulated and mistreated during these interrogations.
Noor Salman, widow of Pulse shooter, goes to trial: What did she know?
Salman told VICE News she and Mateen met on a website called Arab Lounge. The two married shortly after; it was the second marriage for both. Salman told the publication she "was on eggshells every day" and alleges Mateen kicked, punched and raped her throughout their marriage — and verbally abused their son. He even beat her during her pregnancy, she said.
Law enforcement and evidence have confirmed Mateen was the sole shooter, though ISIS initially claimed responsibility for the attack.
In 2018, Salman was acquitted by a federal jury in Orlando. The not guilty verdict followed an eight-day trial. Salman spent more than a year in prison ahead awaiting trial.
Salman now lives in California with her 9-year-old son.
In documents made public by law enforcement, Salman initially claimed to know about plans for the shooting.
In a 2016 essay following the shooting, Mateen's first wife, Sitora Yusufiy, said she experienced similar abuse.