Pulse shooter's widow Noor Salman: Is she a conspirator to Omar Mateen or a dupe?

ORLANDO — Noor Salman, the widow of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, was a willing partner in her husband's ISIS-inspired terrorist attack, prosecutors say.

She is a simple woman with a limited intellect who was duped by her husband and coerced into confessing by the FBI, countered her attorney.

Outlines of the two sides’ cases were summarized in the attorneys’ opening statements at Salman's trial in the federal courthouse in Orlando Wednesday morning.

Mateen killed 49 and wounded dozens of others in the downtown Orlando nightclub in the early-morning hours of June 12, 2106. He was killed by police responding to the scene.

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Even before Mateen was killed, local law enforcement and FBI agents descended on the couple's Fort Pierce apartment where Salman was at home with her then 3-year old son, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Mandolfo said during his opening statements.

He said she misled FBI agents for hours during questioning before finally signing a confession.

Mandolfo said the evidence will show that Salman knew that her husband had pledged alliance to ISIS and had helped him plan the attack by scouting possible sites for an attack including City Place in West Palm Beach and Disney Springs in Orlando.

He also said Salman helped her husband create a cover story to distance her from the attack. He said the prosecution will present cell phone records, computer forensics evidence, text messages, bank statements and testimony from law enforcement officers to support its case.

"Each piece of evidence is a brick in the foundation of this case," Mandolfo said.

Salman's defense attorney, Linda Moreno, said her client was a woman with an IQ of only 84, placing her in the lowest 20 percent of people, who had been lied to by her husband for years and that Mateen had hid his Jihadi plans from her just as he had used similar lies to cover his numerous affairs with other women.

"Noor was in the dark about Mateen's despicable life," Moreno said.

She pointed out Salman's final text message to her husband, sent while Mateen was in the middle of the nightclub was "You know you have work tomorrow, right?"

Moreno also pointed out the FBI interrogated Salman for hours without recording the questioning, despite all the audio and video equipment available at the FBI office.

She said the FBI did that so that there would be no record of the coercive interrogation techniques and that the FBI had already decided that Salman was guilty before questioning her.

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"She denied any knowledge for several hours with her 3-year-old child with her," Moreno told the jury. "She was told if she lied, she would go to jail and not see her child again."

Moreno also noted that Salman agreed to take a polygraph exam and that an FBI polygraph expert interviewed her, but never performed a polygraph exam.

Salman did eventually sign a confession statement that was written by an FBI agent.

Moreno said a expert witness will testify that Salman was in the 98th percentile of people susceptible to being coerced by others, such as FBI agents. And, she said, several of the items listed in the statement Salman signed will be proven to be false by other indisputable evidence that will be submitted during the trial.

Moreno also noted that after some 20 hours of questioning and signing the confession, the FBI let Salman go and that Salman continued to keep the FBI informed of her whereabouts, including taking a trip to California, where Salman was raised, to visit family.

"Despite everything the FBI said she admitted to, the FBI let her go," Moreno said.

Salman was arrested in January 2017 after a federal grand jury in Orlando indicted her.

Both sides indicated that survivors of the massacre would testify at the trial.

Moreno acknowledged the horrific nature of the crime, but that Mateen was the only person responsible for the attack. She said the defense would not ask a single question of the survivors who testify.

Wrapping up, Moreno said nothing in Mateen's past history indicates that he would trust Salman with his plans.

"To the living, we owe respect," she said. "To the dead, we owe the truth."

Contact McCarthy at 321-752-5018

or jmccarthy@floridatoday.com.