Remember the case of 19 year-old Mohamed Osman Mohamud, who was arrested by the FBI after participating in a fake plot to bomb a Christmas-tree lighting in Portland, Oregon? The FBI appears to have messed up a key part of their evidence in the case:
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.
In sting cases, the FBI is careful to cover their bases and make sure the suspect clearly states a desire and intent to act. The judge in this case already rapped Attorney General Eric Holder for remarks about the stings being legal -- but it's not surprising he's confident about this case. Not a single suspected terrorist in one of these sting cases has ever successfully argued an entrapment defense, and it would be remarkable if Mohamud's attorneys managed to do so. It would also endanger a practice that's become a key part of the FBI's policy for preemptively stopping terrorism.
Even without the recording, though, Mohamud's defense attorneys still have an uphill battle, because they have to prove that without the FBI's involvement, Mohamud would not have been predisposed to commit an act of terrorism. Mohamud was, according to the FBI complaint, already attempting to make contacts with extremists abroad prior to being targeted by the sting.
