The FBI arrested the wife of Omar Mateen, the jihadi responsible for a massacre at Orlando’s Pulse night club last year, on Monday morning in San Francisco on charges of obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting the attempted provision of material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
Salman will make a court appearance on Tuesday, her lawyer told ABC News. She was indicted in Tampa, Florida and is expected to relocate there to face charges in the case.
Mateen killed 49 people at an Orlando, Florida nightclub on June 12, 2016 and left more than 50 others injured. During the prolonged attack on the Pulse nightclub, Mateen called 9-1-1, pledged allegiance to ISIS and spoke of the Boston Marathon Islamic terrorist bombers. Mateen was eventually shot and killed in a standoff with law enforcement.
After the attack, reports revealed allegations that Mateen attended the Islamic Center Fort Pierce for 13 years or more. Salman had told the Washington Post that her husband “wasn’t very religious.”
A Florida gun shop owner had also alerted the FBI after a suspicious man came in inquiring about body armor, which the owner refused to sell it to him. The FBI had investigated Mateen in the past as a potential terrorist.
Media reports initially put heavy emphasis on reporting that Mateen may have been mentally ill or harbored repressed homosexual tendencies. The FBI found no evidence of the latter, instead finding evidence he may have had a romantic relationship with a woman other than his wife. Authorities eventually released the seventeen pages of 9-1-1 transcripts from Mateen’s phone call on the night of the massacre, which revealed that he ranted about America’s fight against the Islamic State. Breitbart News previously reported on these transcripts and specific motives Mateen spelled out in his 9-1-1 rant.
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