PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The defense team of a suspect in a terrorism case says it was only by luck and hard work that it managed to unearth the contact between the teen and a government agent who the defense says tried to coerce the teen into violent acts.
Mohamed O. Mohamud’s defense team says emails from an agent known only as “Bill Smith” urged Mohamud to violence, and say they are enough to prove the teen’s innocence and prove the government is not playing fair with the evidence it is supposed to provide.
The now-20-year-old Somali American is charged with attempting to ignite a weapon of mass destruction at Portland’s Nov. 26 holiday tree-lighting ceremony. He has pleaded not guilty.
The men he thought were his coconspirators were really FBI agents and there was never a real explosive device.
