PORTLAND (AP) — The Somali-born man accused in a car bomb plot at a crowded Christmas tree lighting pleaded not guilty Monday as his lawyer suggested that government agents had groomed the teenager and timed his arrest for publicity.
Mohamed Osman Mohamud spoke little during the 15-minute hearing, only answering, “Yes, your honor,” when asked by the judge if he understood his rights. He wore a pale blue shirt and dark pants, and was shackled at the legs.
Judge John Acosta said Mohamud would remain in custody, and the judge set a tentative trial date for February.
Meanwhile, Mohamud’s lawyer, public defender Stephen Sady, hinted that he would explore a defense based on entrapment. He focused on the FBI’s failed attempt to record a first conversation between Mohamud and an FBI undercover operative that resulted in a months-long sting operation and Mohamud’s arrest on Friday.
An FBI affidavit said that Mohamud talked of “putting stuff in a car, parking it by a target, and detonating it” at the July 30 meeting at a downtown Portland hotel. It also said that the undercover agent was equipped with audio recording equipment but it didn’t work, for reasons the affidavit left unexplained.
“In the cases involving potential entrapment, it’s the initial meeting that matters,” said Sady.
The judge granted a defense request to order the government to preserve whatever devices, storage media or locations might have been used for the meeting.
Sady said preserving the evidence would allow defense experts to examine it.
The judge also turned down a defense request for a hearing to question an FBI agent whose affidavit spells out the sting operation. He said Sady’s arguments were better suited for a motion later in the case to suppress evidence.
Mohamud was arrested Friday evening as a crowd of about 10,000 people watched the illumination of the LED lights on a 75-foot Christmas tree at Pioneer Courthouse Square. The FBI said he twice tapped in a number on a cell phone that was supposed to set off a bomb in a van across the street from the plaza.
The bomb was fake, part of an elaborate ruse that didn’t put the public in danger, the government said.
Sady said that during the operation, sophisticated agents were “basically grooming” the teen.
“The arrest is obviously timed for maximum impact and maximum publicity,” he said.
Federal prosecutor Ethan Knight said the timing of the arrest was a result of Mohamud’s selection of the annual tree-lighting ceremony as a target.
