FBI assistant special agent in charge Ron Hopper, center, answers questions after the shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Sunday, June 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
If what Noor Zahi Salman allegedly told the feds is true, Orlando terrorist Omar Mateen's widow could be in serious trouble.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, law enforcement officials revealed to multiple media outlets that Salman is a possible suspect despite not having been present when her husband murdered 49 people and wounded 53 more at the LGBTQ nightclub Pulse on Sunday.
NBC News reported Salman told federal agents how, last Saturday night, she begged Mateen not to do anything violent when he left their Port St. Lucie, Florida, home. In addition to not calling police to warn them, however, the woman allegedly admitted to once driving her spouse to Pulse so he could scope it out. Salman also apparently indicated she was actually with Mateen when he bought ammunition and a holster, the outlet reported, citing officials familiar with the case.
By Wednesday afternoon, CNN was reporting that a US Attorney plans to convene a grand jury to hear evidence and determine if charges should be brought against the woman. (At least one conflicting report, citing people close to Salman, suggests she was not plugged into her husband's plans.) But experts canvassed by VICE suggest the early evidence against Salman, if reported accurately, is extremely damaging. Almost as important, history has not been kind to the friends and relatives of suspected terrorists and mass murderers who were found to have helped them conceal their crimes or have prior knowledge of them.
David O. Markus, the former federal public defender whose private practice has represented several high-profile clients including reggae star Buju Banton and NBA center Dwight Howard, says Salman could be charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism. "The law is so broad and so easy to prove," Markus tells VICE in an email. "She knew what he was doing and did an act in furtherance of that crime. Even if that act is minimal, that's enough."
Andrew K. Levi, a former federal prosecutor in Florida, believes the US Attorney's Office could plausibly charge Salman with murder, attempted murder, providing material support to terrorists, and misprision of a felony. That latter offense would mean she had knowledge of a serious crime but failed to report it—and maybe even took steps to conceal it.
If charged with any of these crimes, Salman is looking at three years to 15 years to life in prison, and possibly even capital punishment, according to Levi.
"If she just knew about it and didn't report it, the government would have a hard time charging her if that is all she did," he says. "But if is she is acknowledging that she drove him around to basically scout this specific location and she knew he was going to commit this act, then she is on the hook. She is helping him prepare for the crime."
In the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers case, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, widow of that attack's slain mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was a possible target for prosecution, according to statements her attorney made to the press last year. That's around the time feds decided not call her to testify at her brother-in-law Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's trial.
The widow, who converted to Islam, lived with her husband during the time he plotted the bombing, and FBI agents found bomb-making materials, including BBs, nails, and wires, inside their apartment shortly after the attack. The woman's laptop also had numerous videos, photos, and articles her husband sent her, according to testimony by a forensics expert in Dzhokhar's trial, as the Boston Globe reported. In 2012, her computer had apparently searched for, "If your husband becomes a Shahid may be still trying to figure out if this was related to some conflicting special preference he had, or whether it was motivated by his Islamic beliefs," Levi says. "She is probably in the best position to give them that information."
If Salman has her own lawyer, the attorney is most likely looking to bargain down the kind of charges and number of years she might serve in prison in exchange for her cooperation, he adds. However, she will have a tough time convincing authorities she did all she could to stop Mateen.
"To be considered as having abandoned her involvement in the crime, she would have needed to call the police or call the club," Levi says. "But she didn't try to warn anybody."
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