WEBVTT - Introducing Pulse: The Untold Story 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:04.600 Hey, Alphabet Boys listeners, this is Trevor Aronson. I'm here 0:00:04.640 --> 0:00:06.760 to tell you about a new series from me and 0:00:06.840 --> 0:00:12.000 Western Sound, Pulse the Untold Story. It's an eight episode 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.960 investigation of the Pulse night club shooting that will leave 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.880 you wondering if anything you've heard about this case is true. 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:23.440 The series is available exclusively on Audible. In a gay 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:27.240 night club in Orlando on June twelfth, twenty sixteen, Omar 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:31.040 Matin murdered forty nine people in wounded fifty three others. 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:34.320 The attack was the deadliest act of violence against the 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:39.000 LGBTQ plus community in US history, and the deadliest terrorist 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:42.760 attack in the United States since nine to eleven. But 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:45.920 there's a story you haven't heard. The FBI had a 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:49.720 secret history with the shooter and his father. To obscure 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:52.960 that history, the FBI pushed a false story that the 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:57.320 media dutifully carried, that the attacker was a secretly gay 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.520 Islamist extremist who had chosen to target Pulse and plan 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:06.200 the attack for weeks. In Pulse the Untold Story, I 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:09.520 uncover the volatile relationship between the shooter and his father 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:12.880 and how their troubled interactions with the FBI lead to 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:17.000 one disturbing question. Could the FBI have prevented the massacre? 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:22.720 You're about to hear the first episode. To listen to 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:26.319 all eight episodes, search for Pulse the Untold Story on 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.160 the Audible app or go to audible dot com slash 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:32.679 Pulse the Untold Story. Start listening today when you sign 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:56.040 up for a free thirty day trial. Here's episode one. 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:03.360 On June twelfth, twenty sixteen, Omar Matine calls nine to 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:06.640 one one and speaks with an operator Emerson. 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:08.320 I want this is DOCTA. Line's very recorded. 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:09.760 Listen. 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:15.280 What's that I'm working out of? 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:16.240 Stood in there? 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:18.280 I want to let you know I'm in Orlando. 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:20.480 Then I did the shooting. 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:22.679 What's your name? 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:29.320 My name is I pledge of allegiance to Adakhadaddy of 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:30.360 the Islamic State. 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:37.679 Okay, what's your name. 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.280 I've pledge my allegiance to Abu Baker al Daha. Daddy 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:45.520 has to do law on behad of the Islamic State. 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.840 Where are you at in Orlando? 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:52.000 Where? 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:52.600 In Orlando? 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:01.880 Omar is inside a bathroom at Pulse, a gay nightclub 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:06.560 in Orlando, Florida. Just minutes earlier, he'd slaughtered dozens of 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:09.400 people with an assault rifle and a handgun. 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:19.359 Two forty eight am. 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:24.440 Police are now desperately trying to call Omar. There are 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:28.320 people trapped inside the bathroom with the shooter. Some are dead, 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:33.080 they're blood pooling on the tile floor. Others are alive 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:38.600 but wounded. The survivors are motionless, pretending to be dead. 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:44.680 Hellas, hello there, Hi, there, this is Orlando police. Who 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:46.520 am I speaking with police? 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:49.960 You're speaking as the person who toasted allegiance to the 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:52.640 Islamic state of the Ember aboudity put. 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:58.080 As Omar talks to a hostage negotiator, he reveals his. 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:04.120 Motive to do is prevent anybody else the US air strikes. 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:06.360 They need to stop the US air strikes. 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:07.400 Okay, I understand. 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:10.000 You need to stop the US air strikes. You have 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:14.720 to tell the US governments to stop bombing. Are killing 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:17.720 too many children, are killing too many women, and they 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:21.559 stand that. I feel the pain of the people getting 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:22.839 killed in Syria. 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:28.480 In all over than in the pas. Okay, So so 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:33.719 I've just done something about that. Yes, I tell me 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:38.680 what you did? Please you already know what I did. Well, 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:40.440 I'm trying to. 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:44.000 Figure out Omar matein murdered forty nine people and injured 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:48.760 fifty three others. His horrific rampage ended with his own death. 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:52.080 A police officer shot him in the head three hours 0:04:52.080 --> 0:05:02.320 after his attack began. You like know about this, You've 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.760 heard the story. Most people are familiar with the Pulse 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:09.359 nightclub shooting. But the story I'm about to tell you 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:13.559 here is different because most of what you've heard about 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:21.840 Pulse is wrong. I'm Trevor Aronson from Western Sound. This 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:31.520 is Pulse, the Untold Story, an audible original episode, One 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:32.880 Needle and a Haystack. 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:43.479 It was a beautiful nightclub with two sections in it. 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:46.719 You know where the dancers were and a DJ in 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:49.599 one section and the main dance floor DJ there. 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.080 This is a man named Orlando Taurus, and he knows 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:55.760 the Pulse Nightclub well. Orlando has been going to the 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:58.279 club for more than ten years and he's become a 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:02.360 promoter of Latin Night. The night Omar Matine walks into Pulse, 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:10.080 It's Latin Night, It's Orlando's night, his event. Just before 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:12.840 last call, Orlando and a friend head to the bathroom. 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:15.240 They take a backway. Not a lot of people know. 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:18.080 About because, as I'm well known, I gotta always say 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:20.800 hello everybody, or you know, it's just never got to 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:22.640 get to the bathroom. You ain't got time to say 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:24.760 hello hello. Everybody stops show. You haven't seen one for 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:26.640 a while while you've been you know, so I took 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:27.280 the backway. 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:31.279 Orlando goes into the lady's room. The bathrooms that pulse 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.880 are marked men's and women's, but the signs don't really 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:36.400 mean anything. Anyone can use either bathroom. 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:39.559 All of a sudden, you know, I'm hearing pop pop pop. 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:42.799 You know, sounds very sharp and clear, crisp, crispy clear. 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:46.320 Orlando and his friend rush into a bathroom stall and 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:49.279 close the door. The two men climb up on the toilet, 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:50.320 hoping not to be seen. 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.480 If it was a gunman shooting out there, he wouldn't 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:55.080 see our feet. 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:58.679 Orlando props his butt on the toilet and then presses 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:01.359 his feet against the door in front of him. His 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:03.840 friend sits on the side of the toilet and lifts 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:10.120 his feet up. Orlando hears more gunshots. They're getting closer. 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.880 He also hears people running into the bathroom looking frantically 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:26.880 for a place to hide. Another clubgoer inside the same 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:29.000 bathroom calls nine one one. 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:31.720 Hello, God, this. 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:33.720 Is Arnest with their Land Police department on a record 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:35.360 a line you've phoned on nine one one? Is everything? 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:36.480 Okay? 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:39.600 No, no, no, no, please of the poll p U L 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:42.440 s E in Orlando for the shooting that he give 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:44.680 me how many people? How many people are shooting? 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:48.720 I think it's too I don't know how. 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:50.800 I'm in the bathroom a bunch of people and he's 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:54.040 shooting at everybody is leaving everywhere. Okay, from what you 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:55.920 can see, did you see the description and as see 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:59.960 white reppers, Hispanic you can pay, sant can home. 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:03.560 Okay, We're gonna go some hills for you. 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:05.640 Can you tell me anything that they weren't wearing. 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:11.520 Nona's am with you now stand A'm gonna do this. 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:12.400 Sus on the phone with us. 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:16.559 Don't hang up, stay on the phone. 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:27.400 The shooter enters the bathroom an assault rifle in his hands. 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:32.600 Orlando quietly pulls out his phone and I started recording. 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:34.640 I pressed my video record. 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:42.640 You can't know. 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:47.120 You can hear Orlando breathing as Omar in the background 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:51.440 speaks to the hostage negotiator. Omar says he's planted a bomb, 0:08:52.559 --> 0:09:10.880 but he's bluffing away inside the bathroom. Cell phones are ringing, 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:15.240 the shooting has just hit the news, and concerned family 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:45.240 and friends are calling their loved ones. The attack at 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:49.640 the Pulse nightclub has been described many ways the deadliest 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:54.000 terrorist attack since nine to eleven, the deadliest mass shooting 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:57.280 in modern US history, which it was at the time, 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:01.560 but is no longer lest attack on a gay community 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:07.520 in US history, which it still is. I've been working 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:11.280 as a journalist here in Florida for two decades. For 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:14.200 much of that time, I've been covering with a critical eye, 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:19.319 the Federal Bureau of Investigation the FBI, the agency tasked 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:22.240 with the very difficult job of preventing terrorist tax and 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:26.200 mass shootings. I remember waking up that June morning at 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:28.800 my home in Saint Petersburg, Florida, just a two hour 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:31.800 drive from where the murders occurred, and seeing the images 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:36.280 on the news, police and emergency vehicles, their lights ablaze, 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:41.280 Patrons bloodied and shaken sitting on curbs and in nearby 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:45.480 parking lots, bodies on the ground covered with drapes to 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:47.439 give the deceased final dignity. 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:51.360 There are more than a list of names. There are 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.360 people who loved and were loved. There are people at 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:56.520 families and friends and dreams. 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:02.080 The tragedy becomes a national news event, with CNN's Anderson 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:06.320 Cooper on the scene hours after the attack. He reads 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:07.760 out the names of the victims. 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:13.280 Juan Ramon Gyerrero, his cousin, said, Juan came out to 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:15.800 his family just this year. I was afraid they might 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:17.080 not accept him, but they did. 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:18.520 He was twenty two. 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.440 Christopher Andrew, known as Drew. 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:26.000 He was Jan's boyfriend. 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:26.520 Well. 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:29.120 The shooter has been identified, of course, as Omar Mattein. 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:33.120 Journalists quickly framed the shooting as an act of terrorism. 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:36.880 In one of the early press conferences around seven am 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:41.160 this morning, you had an FBI official say that early 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:44.800 leads suggest that he was motivated by jihadist ideology. 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:49.160 But terrorism was only one motive. Were soon told Omar 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:51.960 also suffered from an intense internal conflict. 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:55.200 Our team, with new reporting as well on the gunman's 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:55.880 secret life. 0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:59.880 Reporters and law enforcement broadcast that the shooter was also 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:01.360 secretly gay. 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.839 A former classmate is now coming forward. Also, patrons of 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:08.880 that Orlando nightclub, saying he'd been there many times before 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.000 and that he'd been on gay dating apps, and the 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:13.880 question now was he hiding a life at odds with 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:14.880 his strict faith. 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:18.959 This narrative took root because it seemed to make this 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:24.520 senseless tragedy makes sense. Several news organizations bring forward men 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:28.719 claiming to have had relationships with Omar, including one man 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:32.400 disguised with prosthetics and makeup his voice altered. 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:35.520 You had a relationship with Omar Martin? 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:39.640 Yes, I have a relationship with Oma Martin. 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:40.800 Did you have sex with him? 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:41.839 Yes, I do. 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:47.680 It all begins to add up. Attacking a gay nightclub 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.400 in Orlando allowed Omar to end the war inside of him. 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:56.320 Loretta Lynch, then the Attorney General, also endorses the narrative 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:00.840 that Omar had targeted Pulse because it was a gay club. 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:04.280 I cannot tell you definitively that we will ever narrow 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:07.439 it down to one motivation. People often act out of 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:10.680 more than one motivation. This was clearly an active terror 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:16.280 and an active hate. A flood of reports followed, claiming 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:19.760 that Omar was secretly gay and had been to Pulse 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:20.400 in the past. 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.600 Well sources, including the hometown newspaper here, The Orlando Central, 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:26.920 are now reporting that this was no the shooter's first 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:29.400 time at the Pulse nightclub. The Central reports that at 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:32.679 least four regular customers had seen him there before one 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:32.880 of the. 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:41.839 Cities, but none of this is true. Omar Matin, the shooter, 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:46.960 wasn't secretly gay. The FBI knew a lot about Omar 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:50.920 Matine for years before his mass shooting at Pulse. Federal 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:54.199 agents had investigated Omar twice based on concerns that he 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.840 might be a security threat, and the FBI promptly closed 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:03.959 both investigations. And that's because Omar Matin's father was a 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:11.920 confidential informant for the FBI. Sadik Matin secretly provided information 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:15.719 to federal agents for more than a decade. Sadik's work 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:19.920 was supposed to help the FBI identify potential terrorists, and 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:23.320 then his son kills forty nine people and claims to 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:27.480 pledge allegiance to a terrorist organization. Omar becomes the very 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:30.320 type of terrorist the FBI pays his father to fined. 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.320 For Sadik, this has the potential to threaten his livelihood 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.920 after his own son commits the deadliest terrorist attack in 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:41.840 the United States since nine to eleven, So Sadik takes 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:46.600 action just hours after the mass shooting, Omar's father starts 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.920 the false narrative that his son hated gay people and 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:53.080 targeted Pulse because it was a gay club. 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:59.200 Did he ever talk about homosexuality except one time that 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.000 we were in Miami we saw the behavior. 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:05.080 Of one couple and he got a little. 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:06.440 Bit ticked off. 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:07.560 What did he say? 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:10.240 Nothing, just look at this, and what did you say? 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:13.120 Well, there are two guys work kissing each other in 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:14.280 front of the family and the kids. 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.320 And this false narrative has a convenient effect. It allows 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:24.360 the FBI to avoid accountability. The day after the attack, 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:28.960 FBI Director James Comy claims the bureau has done nothing wrong. 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:29.800 I don't think so. 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:32.840 I don't see anything in reviewing our work that our 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:34.880 agents should have done differently. But we'll look at it 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:37.640 in an open, an honest way and be transparent about it. 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:43.360 The FBI has never been transparent about its failings, and 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.960 the bureau has never explained how federal agents let a 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:52.680 mass murderer slip through their fingers, not once, but twice. 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:02.320 As a journalist, I've covered the FBI's pursuit of alleged 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:05.360 terrorists for over fifteen years. My focus has been on 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.440 the FBI's use of sting operations, in which the FBI, 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:11.920 using an undercover agent or a paid informant, pretends to 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:14.960 be a terrorist and offers the opportunity for a would 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:19.680 be terrorist to move forward in an attack. The FBI 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:23.960 provides everything the targets of their stings need, money, transportation, 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:28.840 prop guns, and fake bombs, sometimes even the ideas for 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:32.880 the attacks. Since nine eleven, the FBI has napped more 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:35.600 than three hundred and fifty people in aggressive terrorism stings. 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:40.640 The overwhelming majority of these people didn't know an actual terrorist, 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:44.040 only the FBI agent or informant pretending to be one, 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.600 and many of the accused were easily manipulated due to 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:53.000 financial desperation or mental illness. The primary way the FBI 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:56.680 finds targets of these stings is through informants, and there 0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:00.560 are more than fifteen thousand FBI informants today. They work 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:03.080 for the bureau in exchange for leniency on criminal charges 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:07.800 or to make money. FBI informants can make inexcess of 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:12.000 six figures a year. That's what Omar Matin's father, Sadiq, 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:15.399 was doing for more than a decade, providing information to 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:20.639 the FBI for counter terrorism investigations. The FBI has maintained 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:24.200 publicly that terrorism stings are necessary to keep Americans safe 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:28.000 to take off the street would be terrorists before they 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:31.239 have an opportunity to meet a real terrorist who might 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:35.920 help them launch an attack. The FBI's argument is plausible, 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:40.840 but hypothetical. It's never really happened. There's never been a 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:44.320 case of a would be terrorist with no connections, no money, 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:48.879 no weapons, suddenly happening upon an ISIS or all kind 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:53.439 of operative who provides all three. Hey, there would be terrorist. 0:17:53.960 --> 0:18:01.040 How about a bomb? So I've wondered if the FBI's 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:05.960 counter terrorism strategy actually makes us less safe by distracting 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:11.000 federal agents from real threats. It's a theory that's difficult 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:14.280 to prove, but I started thinking more about this following 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:19.200 a trip to Chicago in February twenty twenty. This was 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:22.200 only a few years ago, but now seems like a 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:26.520 different time. What I didn't know then, what no one 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:29.600 knew then, was that in just a month's time a 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:32.800 pandemic would put much of the United States in lockdown. 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:36.680 And what I also didn't know then was that I'd 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.960 be here telling you about why I was in Chicago 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:44.760 in February twenty twenty. That's because I never expected to 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:49.359 report on or write about any of this. I was 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:51.760 in Chicago to attend an event hosted by the Muslim 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:55.320 Legal Fund, a nonprofit that funds legal defenses in cases 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:59.680 of abuse of prosecutions under anti terrorism laws. At this event, 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.679 I'd soon meet the person authorities said could have stopped 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:10.119 the Pulse shooting but didn't. Two years earlier, in twenty eighteen, 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:14.439 Nor Salman, the widow of the Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Matin, 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:19.159 won an acquittal at trial. The Justice Department alleged that 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:22.560 Nor assisted with the planning of Omar's attack and provided 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:27.800 misleading statements to investigators. Federal prosecutor's evidence included a lengthy 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:31.760 and detailed confession written by an FBI agent and signed 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:36.040 by Nor less than twelve hours after the shooting, but 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:39.639 a federal jury rejected the confession as coerced and false, 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:42.800 along with the rest of the evidence the Justice Department presented. 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:49.159 Nor's acquittal was extraordinary. In the two decades after the 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:52.080 nine to eleven attacks, Muslims charged with terrorism in the 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.600 United States have faced daunting odds before juries of their Peers. 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.280 Nearly one thousand people have been charged under anti terrorism 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:03.600 law since nine one eleven, and just three people, including Nor, 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:09.440 have been acquitted at trial. Just three people. Tonight, nor 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:12.000 Selman leaving the courthouse without a word. 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:14.240 Outrage from victims' families. 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:18.240 Nor's acquittal made national news, with much of the coverage 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:21.040 focused on the gay communities, outrage that she had not 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:22.080 been held accountable. 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:25.600 She knew that her husband was doing what he was doing, 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:26.879 and shame on her. 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:30.720 I am in this belief is to feel like we've 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:31.920 been slapped in the face. 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:39.040 At this conference in Chicago, Nor was scheduled to speak 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:42.960 what was to be her first public comments since her acquittal. 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:46.760 There was a reception beforehand, and people were milling about 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:51.000 talking to old friends and colleagues. I saw Nor off 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:53.840 to the side at a table with her son. She 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:59.159 looked uncomfortable, so I walked over and introduced myself. She 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:01.720 was wearing a black d that matched her long black hair. 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:04.960 We exchanged small talk. She told me about her son, 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:07.040 who was just a couple of years older than my daughter, 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:11.400 and she confessed that she was nervous. I've never given 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:15.120 a speech before. Nor told me blur out the crowd 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:17.400 in your mind, as if you're looking into a camera 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:20.399 that's out of focus. I suggested, that's what I do. 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:25.000 I don't know, she said softly. I just don't know 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:29.480 how to do any of this. As Nor confided in me, 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:32.359 I looked over to see her son sitting at the table, 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:36.560 his head stooped over a Nintendo switch. He was playing Fortnite, 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:40.360 what was then and continues to be the world's most 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:44.040 popular video game. In the game, you battle other players 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:48.960 with an arsenal of weapons handguns, shotguns, machine guns, rocket launchers. 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:55.040 Nora's son, Omar's son was sitting there, navigating the video game, 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:58.280 with his character firing round after round from a gun 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:01.560 very similar to the one his father youth. I found 0:22:01.600 --> 0:22:07.560 this moment simultaneously confusing and enraging. How could he play 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:11.000 this game here? How could she allow him to play it? 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:17.320 I was thinking all this as Nor stood there next 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:20.800 to me, vulnerable, describing how she was so nervous about 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:23.360 what she needed to do, but how she was shy, 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:26.879 how she lacked confidence, and how she wasn't sure if 0:22:26.920 --> 0:22:29.000 she just freeze up when placed in front of people. 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:35.200 I realized then that I was being unfair Nor in 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:41.679 her son didn't kill anyone. They weren't responsible. Against extraordinary odds, 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:46.159 the federal jury acquitted her. I also realized that I 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:49.040 allowed my assumptions about her and what happened to color 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:53.600 my opinion. But I wasn't the only one. Many Americans 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:57.879 did this, assumed that she was somehow responsible and had 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:03.080 gotten away with it. Wife should have known. Many of 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:06.600 us were guilty of thinking that. A part of me, 0:23:07.119 --> 0:23:16.480 deep down wanted to blame Nor. A little bit later 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:19.560 that evening in Chicago, I took one of Nor's lawyers aside. 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:23.200 Charlie Swift was dressed in a suit, his tie not 0:23:23.359 --> 0:23:26.760 slightly loosened, and he stared at me intensely through his glasses. 0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:31.440 Charlie leaned in toward me, uncomfortably close. He has a 0:23:31.480 --> 0:23:33.720 habit of doing this. He's a close talker. 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:39.680 About a month in they turned over and we located 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:45.159 inside the discovery Omar matined and Nora Solomon's cell phone. 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:49.320 Records, Charlie's describing how the Justice Department gave him the 0:23:49.320 --> 0:23:53.880 evidence in Nor's case. Nor's supposed confession made a few 0:23:54.080 --> 0:23:59.280 specific claims that Omar targeted Pulse in advance, that she 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:02.639 and Omar had previously surveiled the club and that she 0:24:02.800 --> 0:24:06.040 was aware of his plans for the attack, But data 0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:10.880 transmitted by Omar's phone and Norris phone didn't support any 0:24:10.960 --> 0:24:11.119 of that. 0:24:12.359 --> 0:24:15.520 We'd identified that tower by the pulse. It's pretty close, 0:24:16.560 --> 0:24:20.680 and we went and looked for that tower in either 0:24:20.760 --> 0:24:25.080 of their cell phone records and it didn't exist, not 0:24:25.240 --> 0:24:26.439 until the night of the shooting. 0:24:27.880 --> 0:24:30.960 The phone tower closest to Pulse had communicated with Omar's 0:24:31.000 --> 0:24:34.600 phone only on the night of the shooting, and it 0:24:34.720 --> 0:24:39.120 had never communicated with Norris phone. So Charlie hired an 0:24:39.160 --> 0:24:42.400 expert to analyze data from the tower and the phones. 0:24:43.640 --> 0:24:47.600 He was able to tell beyond that, okay, which direction 0:24:47.840 --> 0:24:51.199 is it receiving. He was able to tell the speed 0:24:51.400 --> 0:24:53.600 at which they were traveling. He was able to find 0:24:53.760 --> 0:24:57.680 fragments inside it on directions and searches that were there 0:24:57.720 --> 0:25:01.800 from that night. And he calls us back a week 0:25:01.920 --> 0:25:06.000 later and he goes, he did never search for the pulse, 0:25:06.119 --> 0:25:09.960 and he drove by it at random. And I go, Richard, 0:25:10.119 --> 0:25:14.240 that's a provocative statement. Can you prove that? He goes 0:25:14.560 --> 0:25:18.399 come to Florida. So I got on a plane and 0:25:18.480 --> 0:25:20.840 I flew to Florida, and he put up the first 0:25:20.880 --> 0:25:24.720 of a PowerPoint that would be admitted at trial, perfected, 0:25:25.400 --> 0:25:28.000 and I go, oh my god, wow. 0:25:29.640 --> 0:25:32.760 What Charlie and his defense team discovered was completely at 0:25:32.800 --> 0:25:36.800 odds with the public's understanding of what happened. The cell 0:25:36.840 --> 0:25:40.000 phone data revealed that Omar took a random route to 0:25:40.119 --> 0:25:43.320 Pulse and suggested that he chose the club as his 0:25:43.440 --> 0:25:47.080 target at the last minute. The data also appeared to 0:25:47.160 --> 0:25:50.120 prove that there was no way that Nor's confession could 0:25:50.160 --> 0:25:54.280 be true. Omar may not have even realized Pulse was 0:25:54.320 --> 0:25:56.560 a gay club when he walked in with an assault rifle. 0:25:58.400 --> 0:26:00.840 Why has the false narrative that Omar was secretly gay 0:26:01.520 --> 0:26:07.439 and specifically targeted Pulse persisted because that narrative has been 0:26:07.520 --> 0:26:08.479 useful for the government. 0:26:09.960 --> 0:26:13.440 They had excuses, it's part of an ongoing investigation, blah 0:26:13.480 --> 0:26:17.120 blah blah. But they would allow facts that were they 0:26:17.240 --> 0:26:20.359 knew to be false to continue to circulate in the 0:26:20.520 --> 0:26:27.000 media because it hit their narrative. It's an easy narrative. 0:26:27.880 --> 0:26:30.879 When you first heard it, you heard there's been a 0:26:30.960 --> 0:26:35.480 mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and 0:26:35.600 --> 0:26:40.480