Orlando (CNN) Noor Salman, the widow of the gunman in Orlando's Pulse nightclub shooting, sobbed Friday as she was acquitted of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization and of obstruction of justice in connection with her husband's 2016 rampage.

A visibly anxious Salman, wearing a dark suit, stood in federal court as the verdict was read. She wept and heaved as her attorneys -- one of them also crying -- embraced her. She looked back at her relatives.

"Thank you," she whispered to her attorneys.

An uncle, seated in court behind her, stifled a sob as other relatives held one another.

As Salman left the courtroom, she looked back at her family again, her eyes red and teary.

"Noor can go home now to her son, resume her life and try to pick up the pieces from two years in jail," Salman family spokeswoman Susan Clary said, adding that the relatives were grateful for the verdict.

About two hours later, she left the Orange County Jail with her attorney, CNN affiliate WESH reported.

Salman, 31, was arrested in January 2017, months after her husband, Omar Mateen, killed 49 people and injured more than 50 others when he opened fire at Pulse the previous June. Police responding to the attack killed Mateen.

Prosecutors said Salman aided Mateen ahead of his killing spree, then lied to the FBI in an attempt to thwart the investigation.

Jurors began deliberating Wednesday afternoon before returning with a verdict Friday morning.

Salman's relatives and Clary said they were sorry for the victims and survivors.

"It's Good Friday for everybody," said Al Salman, an uncle. "I want to say thank you, Lord, for giving my niece (freedom)."

Defense attorney Linda Moreno also expressed admiration for the victims' families and survivors.

"We're very grateful to this jury and to the Orlando community," she said. "Maybe this was the only community that could do this."

Defense attorney Charles Swift said the prosecution failed to deliver on its promises to the jury.

"The more we learned," he said, "the better Noor Salman looked."

He added, "This jury will stand in my mind as remarkable. ... They were pillars of this community. We knew their backgrounds. They were true judges in this case."

A community still working to heal

Assistant US Attorney Sara Sweeney, in a brief statement, said she was disappointed with the verdict but respected it. She thanked the jurors for their "hard work" and service.

Barbara Poma, founder of the onePulse Foundation, a nonprofit seeking to erect a memorial and museum at the former nightclub, said Mateen was the triggerman and "he should not have one more minute of power over our lives."

"This verdict cannot and will not divide us," she said in a statement. "The survivors, families, and first responders as well as the community of Orlando and everyone around the world must now focus on the work ahead of us. We will always carry the pain of what happened at Pulse, and we will never forget those who were taken."

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer sad on Twitter that the trial's conclusion will help the community heal.

"We can never bring back the 49 innocent victims whose lives were taken on June 12, 2016, or erase the pain that the horrific act brought to so many, but we remain focused on helping the victims and family members continue the healing process," Dyer said in statement.

Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said he shared the disappointment of the victims' families.

"This has been an emotional event for our community, and many feel that justice has not prevailed," he said in a statement.

"However, the system of justice has spoken, and we should look to the continued healing for the families and our entire community so that this event will not define us."

Prosecutor Sweeney asserted that the case was about what Salman "knew and what she did. The defendant didn't pull the trigger that night, but she did serve as a green light for her husband."

Salman's attorneys argued that their client was not an accomplice but a simple-minded victim of her husband's infidelity and lies.

"She doesn't go to the mosque, she searches for Hello Kitty on her website," Swift said in closing arguments. "We're supposed to believe she had long conversations with Omar Mateen about jihads?"

Salman did not testify during the trial. She faced life in prison.

'I wish I had been more truthful'

During 10 days of testimony, jurors watched surveillance video showing Mateen buying weapons before the shooting and also opening fire inside the nightclub.

Security cameras also recorded Mateen going with Salman on a shopping spree for clothing, toys and jewelry at stores in central Florida at least a week beforehand.

"I wish I had done the right thing, but my fear held me back. I wish I had been more truthful," she wrote in the statement, which was shown in court.

FBI special agent Ricardo Enriquez testified that Salman said in several statements to the FBI that Mateen watched jihadi beheading videos, purchased a rifle and ammunition and went to a gun range to practice.

'She's not calculating'

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Defense attorneys cast Salman as a mother and a victim of Mateen's abuse and infidelity as well as of the FBI's coercive investigators.

"Omar Mateen is a monster. Noor Salman is a mother, not a monster. Her only sin is she married a monster," Moreno told jurors.

Since the defense launched its case Monday, Mateen's family and friends described her as a peaceful person and a good mother. They said Salman is not capable of being "calculating," "deceptive" or "able to connect the dots."

"Nothing harmful would come out of her," a friend of Salman's who was identified only as Ms. Ahmed told jurors, according to CNN affiliate WKMG.

Bruce Frumkin, a forensic clinical psychologist, testified Tuesday that a lack of sleep, mental issues, low IQ scores and lengthy interrogations contribute to false confessions.

Salman was interviewed by authorities for 11 hours, and her IQ score is 84, which makes her "below average in intelligence," Frumkin said.

Gunman's father was FBI informant

Defense attorneys filed a motion for dismissal last weekend after prosecutors informed them that the shooter's father was an FBI informant under criminal investigation.

The revelation threatened to upend the case against Salman, but the judge denied the motion, saying it was not relevant.

Seddique Mateen was a confidential FBI source at various points between January 2005 and June 2016, a motion filed by the defense said, citing an email from Sweeney.

The email also said that Seddique Mateen was under investigation over money transfers to Turkey and Afghanistan after documents were found in his home on June 12, 2016, the day of the Pulse attack. The dates of the money transfers were between March 16 and June 5, 2016, according to the email.

Defense attorneys argued that if they had known about Seddique Mateen's FBI status, they may have argued other theories during the trial, including that the Mateens, rather than Salman, conspired to support ISIS, according to the motion.

Seddique Mateen had been on the prosecution's witness list but was not called to testify in the trial.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified the call letters of CNN affiliate WKMG.</s>In a rare and stinging defeat for government prosecutors in a terrorism case, the widow of the gunman who slaughtered 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, has been acquitted of helping to plot the attack and lying to the FBI afterward.

Noor Salman, 31, sobbed Friday upon hearing the jury's verdict of not guilty of obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization, charges that could have brought a life sentence. Her family gasped each time the words "not guilty" were pronounced.

On the other side of the Orlando courtroom, the families of the victims of the June 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting sat stone-faced and silent.

In this Friday, March 30, 2018 photo released by Susan Clary, Noor Salman, second from right, and her attorneys pose for a photo after Salman was acquitted of lying to the FBI and helping her husband attack the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. The attorneys, Linda Moreno, Fritz Scheller, Charles Swift pose with Salman from left. (Susan Clary via AP)

Within hours, Salman was released from jail after 14 months and got into a waiting car without answering questions.

Susan Adieh, left, cousin, and other family members of Noor Salman receive hugs from friends Friday, March 30, 2018 after a jury found Salman not guilty on all charges at the Orlando Federal Courthouse, in Orlando, Fla. The widow of the gunman who slaughtered 49 people at a gay Orlando nightclub was acquitted Friday of helping her husband plan the attack and lying to the FBI, ending the government's two-year effort to hold someone accountable. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

Defense attorney's Fritz Scheller, left, Charles Swift and Linda Moreno for Noor Salman react to a question during a news conference Friday, March 30, 2018 after the jury acquitted Noor Salman, Friday, March 30, 2018 in Orlando, Fla. Salman, widow of Omar Mateen, the gunman who slaughtered 49 people at a gay Orlando nightclub in 2016 was acquitted of helping to plot the attack and lying to the FBI afterward, a rare and stinging defeat for the U.S. government in a terrorism case. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

Assistant U.S. Attorney's Sara Sweeney,left, James Gandolfo and Roger Handberg,right, leave the Orlando Federal Courthouse Friday, March 30, 2018 after Noor Salman was acquitted Friday, March 30, 2018 in Orlando, Fla. Salman, widow of Omar Mateen, the gunman who slaughtered 49 people at a gay Orlando nightclub in 2016 was acquitted of helping to plot the attack and lying to the FBI afterward, a rare and stinging defeat for the U.S. government in a terrorism case. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

Pulse nightclub owner Barbara Poma ,center, who was present for the verdict, leaves the courthouse with a group of family members of Pulse victims after Noor Salman was acquitted Friday, March 30, 2018 in Orlando, Fla. Salman, widow of Omar Mateen, the gunman who slaughtered 49 people at a gay Orlando nightclub in 2016 was acquitted of helping to plot the attack and lying to the FBI afterward, a rare and stinging defeat for the U.S. government in a terrorism case. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

FILE - In this Nov. 30, 2016 file photo, artwork and signatures cover a fence around the Pulse nightclub, scene of a mass shooting, in Orlando, Fla. Jurors in the federal trial of Noor Salman, the Pulse nightclub gunman's widow, have gotten a look inside his Florida condo through crime scene photos taken as FBI agents searched the home. They also saw some of her husband Omar Mateen's web browsing history Tuesday, March 20, 2018, including beheading videos created by the Islamic State group Mateen had pledged allegiance to. Salman is accused of aiding and abetting her husband in the 2016 attack that left 49 people dead. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Charles Swift, defense attorney for Noor Salman paces outside the Orlando Federal Courthouse, Thursday, March 29, 2018, as the jury deliberates the fate of his client in Orlando, Fla. Jurors in the trial of Salman, accused of aiding her husband's terrorist attack against an Orlando nightclub, later finished deliberating on Thursday without reaching a verdict. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)</s>Nightclub gunman's widow sobs as jury finds her not guilty

The widow of the gunman who slaughtered 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, was acquitted Friday of helping to plot the attack and lying to the FBI afterward — a rare and stinging defeat for the U.S. government in a terrorism case.

Noor Salman, 31, sobbed upon hearing the jury's verdict of not guilty of obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization, charges that could have brought a life sentence. Her family gasped each time the words "not guilty" were pronounced.

On the other side of the Orlando courtroom, the families of the victims of the June 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting sat stone-faced and silent.

Within hours, Salman was released from jail after 14 months and got into a waiting car without answering questions.

"Noor is so grateful. Her belief in the process was shown. She wants to get back to her son," her attorney Linda Moreno said. Family spokeswoman Susan Clary said Salman's family "always thought that Noor was the first victim" of her husband, Omar Mateen.

The verdict reverberated through Orlando and legal circles beyond.

"The government rarely, rarely loses these kinds of cases. It's got every single factor on its side," said David Oscar Markus, a Miami attorney who routinely tries federal cases. "It's a pretty impressive win for the defense and a devastating loss for the government."

Mateen, the American-born son of Afghan immigrants, was killed by police after opening fire in the name of the Islamic State group.

Relying heavily on an alleged confession from Salman, federal prosecutors charged that she and Mateen had scouted out potential targets together — including Disney World's shopping and entertainment complex — and that she gave him the "green light to commit terrorism."

But the defense portrayed her as an easily manipulated woman with a low IQ and argued that she signed a false confession because she was tired after a long interrogation and feared losing her young son.

In a blow to the government's case, the FBI itself found that receipts and cellphone signals showed the couple were nowhere near the Pulse on the day Salman said they were.

Also, prosecutors introduced no online posts, texts or any other evidence that Salman supported ISIS, and were hard-pressed to counter the defense's portrayal of her as a simple, sweet mother who loves her 5-year-old son, romance novels and the cartoon character Hello Kitty.

After the verdict, prosecutors said they were disappointed and took no questions.

The jurors said little as they left court.

"Noor Salman should never have been on trial," said Ahmed Bedier, a civil rights advocate and the president of United Voices of America. "Let this verdict serve as a message to law enforcement and prosecutors who railroad and persecute innocent people on little evidence, the people of this great nation will not allow it."

Some veteran attorneys said the government made a mistake in not recording the alleged confession. The jury was given only a written statement.

"The FBI needs to start recording their statements. It's a terrible practice. But it's the FBI's policy not to record," Markus said. "Even local police agencies now record statements and are required to do so. Jurors in today's age want to hear the recording, they want to see the evidence."

Miami defense attorney David Weinstein said: "As much as we don't want to admit it, this is the age of the cellphone. It's ingrained in the minds of jurors, if it's not recorded, it didn't happen."

Christine Leinonen, an attorney and former state trooper whose only son was killed in the nightclub massacre, told The Orlando Sentinel she was disappointed but not shocked by the verdict. She said Salman's alleged confession was "clearly coerced" and added: "Cops screw up their own cases."

Prosecutors had also accused Salman of falsely claiming that her husband didn't use the internet in their home, that he had deactivated his Facebook account years earlier, that he had one gun when he had three, and that he wasn't radicalized.

But the defense said that Salman, who was born in California to Palestinian parents, was abused and cheated on by her husband and that he concealed much of his life from her. Her attorneys argued there was no way she knew her husband would attack the nightclub because even he didn't know it until moments before.

According to prosecutors, Mateen intended to attack Disney World's shopping and entertainment complex by hiding a gun in a stroller but became spooked by police and chose a new target.

This story has been corrected to show that Bedier is with United Voices of America.</s>March 30 (UPI) -- A Florida jury on Friday acquitted Noor Salman -- the widow of Pulse nightclub gunman Omar Mateen -- as an accomplice in the attack.

Salman, 31, was acquitted of all charges that accused her of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization and obstruction of justice. A conviction could have brought life in prison.

Salman was arrested months after Mateen's June 11, 2016, attack on the Orlando, Fla., club that killed 49 people. Mateen was ultimately killed by police at the scene. Prosecutors accused her of lying to FBI agents.

Salman cried when the verdict was read, along with her cousin and two uncles. Spokesman Susan Clary said the widow was "elated" she could "go home to her son."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Sweeny said although they were "disappointed", they respected the jury's decision.

"This case is about what she knew and what she did," Sweeney said at trial. "The defendant didn't pull the trigger that night, but she did serve as a green light for her husband."

Orlando Police Chief John Mina said he was "grateful for the jury's hard work and thoughtful deliberation."

"Nothing can erase the pain we all feel about the senseless and brutal murders of 49 of our neighbors, friends, family members and loved ones," Mina said in a statement. "I want to thank the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida and the FBI, who have worked tirelessly on this case in the quest for justice."

Salman's attorneys argued she was not an accomplice in the case, but a victim.

"She doesn't go to the mosque, she searches for Hello Kitty on her website," defense attorney Charles Swift said in his closing argument. "We're supposed to believe she had long conversations with Omar Mateen about jihads?"

This month, FBI Special Agent Ricardo Enriquez testified that Salman told investigators she was aware her husband was preparing to commit a violent act -- and said she'd wished she "had done the right thing."

"She began to cry and said, 'I knew,'" Enriquez said.

In the days leading up to the attack, Salman was recorded on surveillance cameras accompanying Mateen on a shopping spree for clothing, toys for their son and jewelry.

On the first day of trial, however, defense attorney Linda Moreno said Salman was a "trusting, simple" woman with an IQ of 84 who was clueless about her husband's plans to attack the nightclub.

"Omar Mateen is a monster. Noor Salman is a mother, not a monster. Her only sin is she married a monster," Moreno said.</s>ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - The Latest on the trial of the widow of the Orlando nightclub shooting that killed 49 people in 2016 (all times local):

 

10:30 a.m.

 

The widow of the gunman who killed 49 people at a gay Orlando nightclub has been acquitted on charges of lying to the FBI and helping her husband in the 2016 attack.

 

Noor Salman was found not guilty of charges of obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization.

 

Salman was married to Omar Mateen when he attacked the Pulse nightclub.

 

Prosecutors say Salman knew about Mateen's guns, his affinity for violent Muslim extremist videos and his intention to attack a location, but did nothing to stop him.

 

Defense attorneys described Salman as a simple woman with a low IQ who was abused by her husband, and who didn't know of his plans because he concealed much of his life from her.

 

___

 

9:45 a.m.

 

Jurors have reached a verdict in the trial of the widow of the Orlando nightclub shooter who killed 49 people in 2016.

 

Officials from U.S. District Court in Orlando said Friday that the jury had reached its decision and it will be announced in about 30 minutes.

 

Noor Salman is charged with obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization. She faces life in prison if convicted.

 

Salman was married to Omar Mateen when he attacked the gay nightclub.

 

Prosecutors say Salman knew about Mateen's guns, his affinity for violent Muslim extremist videos and his intention to attack a location, but did nothing to stop him.

 

Defense attorneys described Salman as a simple woman with a low IQ who was abused by her husband, and who didn't know of his plans because he concealed much of his life from her.

 

___

 

11:25 p.m.

 

Jurors in the trial of a woman accused of aiding her husband's terrorist attack against an Orlando nightclub will deliberate her fate for a third day.

 

Noor Salman is charged with obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization. She faces up to life in prison if convicted of all charges.

 

Salman's husband was Omar Mateen, who shot and killed 49 people in the Pulse nightclub in June 2016. Police killed him after the attack.

 

Prosecutors say Salman knew about Mateen's plans and did nothing to stop them. Her lawyers say she had no knowledge of them and was mentally and physically abused by him. They say she wasn't an Islamic extremist.</s>Noor Salman, the widow of Pulse nightclub gunman Omar Mateen, was found not guilty Friday in the only trial to stem from the deadly June 2016 shooting rampage.

Salman, 31, was accused of helping her husband plan his terror assault on the Orlando, Florida, nightclub and of falsely denying her role afterward.

The government equated Mateen's actions with supporting terrorism, because he repeatedly pledged allegiance to ISIS before and during the attack that left 49 people dead and 53 injured. For that reason, Salman was charged with aiding him in providing material support to a terror group.

She was also charged with obstruction of justice, accused of misleading police and FBI agents by making contradictory statements about whether she knew what he was planning.

But after a two-week trial, a federal court jury acquitted her on both counts. Outside the courthouse, relatives and friends said they were elated.

"The family really wants to first say that we're very sorry for the family members and friends of the 49 victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting and also the survivors of that horrible attack," said Susan Clary, a spokesman for Salman's family.

"Noor can go home now to her son, Zack, resume her life and try to pick up the pieces."

Salman has been in jail since she was arrested in January 2017. "I don't know how she's going to make up for the last two years," said her uncle Al Salman.

Fritz Scheller, one of her defense lawyers, praised victims of the shooting who attended the trial.

"They came searching for the truth," he said. "Throughout the trial they showed a sense of dignity and compassion and understanding. Even after the verdict, we embraced. I just think they're extraordinary people and they've been through a lot."

During deliberations, jurors asked the judge to define "encouragement" and "support" for another's crime. In response, Judge Paul Byron said to find that she aided and abetted her husband, the jury would have to conclude "that she participated in it as something that she wished to bring about, and that she sought by her actions to make it succeed."

The verdict suggest jurors did not reach that conclusion.

Prosecutors said she knew her husband was heavily armed when he left the house in a rented van the night of the shooting and, as she later told the FBI, "that he was going to do something bad."

But her lawyers said that statement was made under duress by a physically abused woman who had a low IQ and was easily intimidated. She was tired after a long interrogation by the FBI and signed a confession because she feared she would lose custody of her young son, the defense said.</s>The widow of Omar Mateen, the gunman who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in the US state of Florida, has been acquitted of two charges related to the June 2016 attack.

Jurors at the court in Orlando on Friday found Noor Salman not guilty of obstruction of justice, and for providing material support to Mateen before the mass shooting, one of the deadliest in modern US history.

Federal prosecutors said Salman, 31, had advance knowledge of the crime, and then aided and abetted her husband in providing material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

A guilty verdict would have meant a lifetime behind bars for Salman.

The Orlando Sentinel news website described her to be in tears following the verdict.

The 12-member jury reportedly delivered its verdict after deliberating for 12 hours.

Under the US jury system, a judge oversees the selection of a group of civilian individuals, who will then unanimously decide the culpability of an accused person.

During the June 12, 2016, attack at Pulse nightclub, Mateen was reported to have pledged allegiance to ISIL in a call to an emergency police hotline.

Mateen was killed in a gun battle with Orlando police during the attack. Aside from the 49 deaths, another 53 people were also injured.

At the time of the incident, Mateen and Salman lived in a coastal city south of Orlando.

In an interview with the New York Times months after the deadly shooting, Salman had said that she knew her husband watched ISIL-related videos but added that she was "unaware of everything" about his intent to kill people at the nightclub.

She also claimed that she was physically abused by Mateen.

During the trial, Linda Moreno, one of Salman's lawyers, told reporters that her client "had no foreknowledge, nor could she predict what Omar Mateen intended to do that tragic night".

The Orlando Sentinel quoted Sara Sweeney, one of the prosecutors, as saying they were "disappointed" in the jury's verdict but "respect" it.

The shooting sparked a debate about gun safety, an issue that has attracted new attention in the US following the killing of 17 people last month in a mass shooting at a high school in another part of Florida.</s>BREAKING: Noor Salman, the widow of the Pulse nightclub gunman, on Friday was found not guilty of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization and not guilty of obstruction of justice.

Federal jurors in Orlando weighed the charges in connection with her husband's 2016 killing spree.

A verdict has been reached in the trial of Noor Salman, the widow of the Pulse nightclub gunman, who is accused of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization and obstruction of justice related to the 2016 Orlando massacre.

Salman, 31, was arrested in January 2017, months after her husband, Omar Mateen, killed 49 people and injured more than 50 others when he opened fire the prior June at Pulse nightclub. Mateen was killed by police who responded to the attack.

Prosecutors said Salman aided Mateen ahead of his killing spree, then lied to the FBI in an attempt to thwart the investigation.

"This case is about what she knew and what she did," Assistant US Attorney Sara Sweeney said. "The defendant didn't pull the trigger that night, but she did serve as a green light for her husband."

Salman's attorneys argued that their client was not an accomplice but a simple-minded victim of her husband's infidelity and lies.

"She doesn't go to the mosque, she searches for Hello Kitty on her website," defense attorney Charles Swift said in his closing argument. "We're supposed to believe she had long conversations with Omar Mateen about jihads?"

Salman did not testify during the trial. If she is convicted on the terror charge, she could face life in prison.

'I wish I had been more truthful'

During 10 days of testimony, jurors watched surveillance video showing Mateen buying weapons prior to the shooting and also opening fire inside the nightclub.

Security cameras also recorded Mateen going with Salman on a shopping spree for clothing, toys and jewelry at several stores in central Florida at least a week before the shooting.

After Salman's arrest, she said in a statement to the FBI that she knew in advance that her husband was going to do something violent.

"I wish I had done the right thing, but my fear held me back. I wish I had been more truthful," she wrote in the statement, which was shown in court.

FBI special agent Ricardo Enriquez testified that Salman said in several statements to the FBI that Mateen watched jihadi beheading videos, purchased a rifle and ammunition and went to a gun range to practice.

Defense attorneys cast Salman as a mother and a victim of Mateen's abuse and infidelity, as well as of the FBI's coercive investigators.

"Omar Mateen is a monster. Noor Salman is a mother, not a monster. Her only sin is she married a monster," defense attorney Linda Moreno told jurors.

Since the defense launched its case Monday, Mateen's family and friends described her as a peaceful person and a good mother. They said Salman is not capable of being "calculating," "deceptive" or "able to connect the dots."

"Nothing harmful would come out of her," a friend of Salman's who was identified only as Ms. Ahmed told jurors, according to CNN affiliate WKGM.

Bruce Frumkin, a forensic clinical psychologist, testified Tuesday, saying lack of sleep, mental issues, low IQ scores and lengthy interrogations contribute to false confessions.

Salman was interviewed by authorities for 11 hours and her IQ score is 84, which makes her "below average in intelligence," Frumkin said.

Defense attorneys filed a motion for dismissal last weekend after prosecutors informed them that the shooter's father was an FBI informant who is under criminal investigation.

The revelation threatened to upend the case against Salman, but the judge denied the motion, saying it was not relevant to the case against her.

Seddique Mateen was a confidential FBI source at various points in time between January 2005 and June 2016, a motion filed by the defense states, citing an email from Sweeney.

The email also states that Seddique Mateen is being investigated for money transfers to Turkey and Afghanistan after documents were found in his home on June 12, 2016, the day of the Pulse attack. The dates of the money transfers were between March 16, 2016, and June 5, 2016, according to the email.

Defense attorneys argued that if they had known about Seddique Mateen's FBI status, they may have argued other theories during the trial, including that the Mateens, rather than Salman, conspired to support ISIS, according to the motion.

Seddique Mateen had been on the prosecution's witness list but was not called to testify in the trial.</s>(AP) - In a rare and stinging defeat for government prosecutors in a terrorism case, the widow of the gunman who slaughtered 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, has been acquitted of helping to plot the attack and lying to the FBI afterward.

 

Noor Salman, 31, sobbed Friday upon hearing the jury's verdict of not guilty of obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization, charges that could have brought a life sentence. Her family gasped each time the words "not guilty" were pronounced.

 

On the other side of the Orlando courtroom, the families of the victims of the June 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting sat stone-faced and silent.

 

Within hours, Salman was released from jail after 14 months and got into a waiting car without answering questions.</s>ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - The widow of the Pulse nightclub gunman walked free on Friday after a jury cleared her of charges related to the 2016 massacre that killed 49 people in Orlando, Florida.

Noor Salman, 31, could have faced up to life in prison had she been convicted of federal charges of obstruction of justice and aiding her husband, Omar Mateen, in providing support to the Islamic State militant group.

Instead, the U.S. District Court jury acquitted Salman after roughly 12 hours of deliberation that began on Wednesday. Hours later, she walked out of Orange County jail, her head bowed as she held hands with defense lawyer Fritz Scheller.

“We knew from day one she was innocent,” Salman’s aunt, Susan Adieh, told reporters just after the verdict.Salman was home with the couple’s then 3-year-old son at the time of the massacre on June 12, 2016. Mateen died in an exchange of gunfire with police at Pulse, a gay nightspot.

The acquittal was an emotional blow for the survivors and families of those killed. The attack stunned and dismayed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and Latinos who frequented Pulse.

At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. It has since been surpassed by the Las Vegas attack in which a shooter opened fire on an outdoor concert from his hotel room last year, killing 58 people.

“We’re very sorry for the family members and friends of the 49 victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting, and also the survivors of that horrible attack,” said Susan Clary, Noor’s family spokeswoman.

A group of victims’ relatives and friends, accompanied by Pulse owner Barbara Poma, left the courthouse without responding to reporters’ questions.

“Those of us directly affected by this tragedy must find peace in our hearts and remember that he was the one who pulled the trigger that night,” Poma said in a statement.

A group of survivors, friends and family planned to meet at the Pulse nightclub about 2 miles (3 km) from the courthouse.

“She may not be guilty, but she isn’t innocent either,” said Luis Morales, a Pulse regular who was not there during the attack. “She knew what he was doing.”

When U.S. District Judge Paul Byron announced the verdict, Salman broke down in tears and hugged her defense lawyers, according to reporters inside the courtroom. Her relatives gasped while families of the victims sat silently, showing little emotion.

Mateen, 29, opened fire shortly after 2 a.m. during Latin night, shooting patrons on the dance floor and spraying bullets at others hiding in bathroom stalls. He then held hostages during a standoff with police, claiming allegiance to a leader of Islamic State before he was shot dead.

Prosecutors said Salman cased possible attack sites with her husband and did nothing to stop his plans. They claimed she initially told investigators her husband acted without her knowledge but later said she knew he was watching Islamic State videos, had purchased an assault rifle, and examined three possible attack locations.

However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not record the interrogation and the defense said she was coerced into making statements.

The jury appeared to believe the defense portrayal of Salman as a battered spouse kept in the dark, said David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor and now a partner at Coral Gables, Florida-based Hinshaw & Culbertson.

“The lack of a videotaped confession had to have had an impact on the jury’s acceptance of her confession. ... It is clear they believed it was coerced,” Weinstein said in a statement.
A United States court jury in Florida finds the widow of Omar Mateen not guilty of assisting her husband in the June 2016 attack that killed 49 people.