March 27 (UPI) — A federal judge in Florida rejected a request by defense attorneys to dismiss the case against the widow of the Pulse night club shooter on Monday.
Lawyers for Noor Salman filed a motion Sunday saying prosecutors failed to mention in court that her husband’s father, Seddique Mateen, was an FBI informant between 2005 and 2016. They asked for the judge to dismiss the case or declare a mistrial.
The judge denied the request.
“This trial is not about Seddique Mateen. It’s about Noor Salman,” U.S. District Judge Paul Byron said.
Salman was married to Omar Mateen, an Islamic State supporter who shot and killed 49 people at the Pulse night club in Orlando, Fla., in 2016. Salman is accused of aiding and abetting her husband’s plan to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, as well as obstruction of justice. The prosecution rested its case last week.
In investigating the elder Mateen after the shootings, the FBI also found that he made money transfers to Turkey and Afghanistan, which the bureau said were donations to “contribute toward an attack against the government of Pakistan.”
Seddique Mateen has not been called to testify in the trial, but may now be called by defense attorneys.
In the motion, Salman’s defense said prosecutors did not share the information, and argued for a mistrial or the dismissal of all charges.
“It is apparent from the government’s belated disclosure that Ms. Salman has been defending a case without a complete set of facts and evidence that the government was required to disclose,” attorney Fritz Scheller wrote in the filing.
Her attorneys argued that if Salman’s defense team had been made aware of the money transfers, they would have “investigated whether a tie existed between Seddique Mateen and his son, specifically whether [Omar] Mateen’s father was involved in or had foreknowledge of the Pulse attack.”
Scheller said prosecutors argue that Salman and her husband arranged a cover story, telling his parents about where he was going the night prior to the early-morning shooting at the club.
If the father had “some level of foreknowledge” about his son’s plan, a cover story “would have been completely unnecessary,” the motion states.
The information about Omar Mateen’s father was disclosed to defense attorneys in an email Sunday. Salman’s defense argues that prosecutors violated an evidence disclosure law by not informing them earlier.
The judge in the case denied another motion to dismiss the case Friday after prosecutors rested their case.
