The FBI's attempt in July to record Mohamed Mohamud's first words about taking part in a bombing failed because a recorder ran out of juice, government prosecutors revealed in court papers Thursday.

"Put simply," they wrote, "it was human error: the device was accidentally turned on hours before the meeting time and therefore ran out of battery power as the meeting began."

Mohamud's lawyers appear to be mounting an illegal entrapment defense, suggesting the FBI steered their client into a plot to bomb thousands of Christmas revelers at Portland's annual tree-lighting ceremony last Nov. 26.

Legal scholars have said the FBI's botched recording will make for interesting arguments in court because first utterances of criminal intentions are pivotal in entrapment cases.

Prosecutors pointed out in Thursday's filing that while the recording failed, FBI agents overheard the July 30 conversation between Mohamud and one of the bureau's undercover operatives as they took a morning walk in downtown Portland.

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"During that meeting," they wrote, "the conversation between (the FBI operative) and (Mohamud) was transmitted through an FBI channel to a number of devices including walkie talkies and earpieces, and the meeting was partially overheard by different agents."

The government first acknowledged the recording failure in its original complaint against Mohamud. But Thursday's court filing detailed for the first time how the error occurred.

Lawyers for the 20-year-old Somali American filed a standard motion last month seeking evidence gathered by the prosecution, including the FBI's notes on that first conversation.

The government has provided Mohamud's defense team with extensive documentation about why that conversation wasn't recorded, prosecutors wrote.

An FBI agent typed up a report, based on his raw notes, on all the meetings between Mohamud and the bureau's undercover operatives, including the July 30 conversation, according to the government's filing.

Prosecutors also plan to provide Mohamud's defense team with a report by another FBI agent who heard portions of the July 30 conversation through the FBI's live transmission. The agent's recollection of the meeting was consistent with the typewritten report, they said.

Mohamud's defense lawyers have raised what they call "serious questions" about whether the FBI steered a vulnerable teen into the alleged bomb plot. Mohamud was 19 at the time. They are seeking evidence that might help them establish that their client lacked the predisposition to commit such a crime.

The government accuses Mohamud of plotting to ignite a van full of explosives at Pioneer Courthouse Square. They allege that he planned the bombing while meeting regularly with two men posing as Islamic terrorists, both of whom were undercover FBI operatives.

The undercover associates presented Mohamud with a van full of what appeared to be explosives, according to a criminal complaint filed in Portland's U.S. District Court. But the "bomb," rigged by the FBI, was a realistic-looking fake.

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Clarification:

The print edition headline for this story, published April 8, may have implied that the failure to record Mohamed Mohamud's first words to undercover FBI operatives was newly revealed information. In fact, prosecutors had disclosed that information last fall.