A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Portland prosecutors in the 2010 attempted bombing of a Christmas tree lighting ceremony to hand over a faulty FBI battery and recording device used in the case, The Oregonian newspaper reported.
The prosecution said it already had turned over 6,000 pages of documents.
The defense team for Mohamed Mohamud, the Somali-American teenager, claims its client was entrapped by the FBI in a sting. The defense claims he was coaxed into the plot.
The defense is focusing on the recorder and the battery that failed to record a key meeting last July 30 when Mohamud allegedly brought up taking part in the bombing with an FBI operative posing as an Islamic terrorist, the Oregonian reported. The failure could give the defense more wiggle room to interpret the conversation without the recording.
The Oregonian reported that prosecutors said the recorder failed because the battery had died before the meeting. FBI agents did, however, listen to the tape and later write up a report on what they heard, the paper reported.
Mohamud’s lawyer Stephen R. Sady told the judge he wanted an expert to examine the recorder and battery.
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