The father of the Pulse nightclub shooter was an FBI informant

The father of the Pulse nightclub shooter was a confidential FBI informant for over a decade, new documents reviewed by CBS News affiliate WKMG allege. Seddique Mateen served as a U.S. government intelligence source between 2005 and 2016. His son, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old Islamic State sympathizer, killed 49 people and injured 68 others in Orlando in 2016, before being shot and killed by police.

The information about the elder Mateen was included in a demand for a mistrial filed by the attorneys of Omar Mateen's widow, Noor Salman. Salman is charged with aiding and abetting her husband, obstruction of justice, and lying to prosecutors. "Salman's attorneys claim the late disclosure of the information [by the government] prevented them from exploring whether or not Seddique Mateen knew of his son's plans to attack the nightclub on June 12, 2016," explains WKMG.

Additionally, the document states that in 2012, "an anonymous tip indicated that Seddique Mateen was seeking to raise $50,000 to $100,000 via a donation drive to contribute toward an attack against the government of Pakistan." The defense further alleges that Salman was denied a polygraph test potentially "based on the FBI's desire to implicate Noor Salman, rather than Seddique Mateen, in order to avoid scrutiny of its own ineptitude with the latter."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

If convicted, Salman faces a potential sentence of life in prison.