Defense Attorneys Take On FBI Informant In Terror Trial
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The 20-year-old informant in the Twin Cities terror trial has been paid $119,000 by the FBI for his work.
Abdirahman Bashir testified he has received much of that money in cash from federal agents, and it included $25,000 for hotels, a $7,200 car and a $1,000 computer.
Bashir is the star witness in the trial of three of his former friends who are accused of not only trying to join ISIS but of conspiring to commit murders for the terror group.
On Monday, defense attorneys began their cross examination of Bashir in an effort to discredit him. In Bashir's fourth day on the witness stand, defense attorneys suggested it was in his best interests to get his friends in trouble.
"The entire community says it's my fault, all I did was tell the truth," Bashir said.
The defense attorney for Mohamed Farah pointed out it was Bashir who secured the fake passports for Farah and defendant Abdirahman Daud, and that without those passports Farah and Daud would never have tried to leave the country.
While the three defendants on trial face up to life in prison if convicted, Bashir -- who at one point was part of the plot -- is at the moment not facing any criminal charges.
Bashir testified he began changing his mind about ISIS in November 2014 when four of his cousins, including Hanad Mohallim, who was from Burnsville, died fighting for ISIS in Syria.
Earlier in the day, prosecutors played more of the secret recordings Bashir made. In them, you could you could hear Daud and Farah talking about the fake passports and becoming martyrs if they died fighting for ISIS.
Family and friends of the defendants once again had hard words for Bashir.
"When you hear from the court $119,000 dollars, it's all about money," Defendant Guled Omar's mother Fadumo Hussein said through an interpreter. "It's very sad our taxpayer money is being used to destroy our community."
Bashir admitted that while he was on the FBI payroll, he had smoked marijuana to ease his anxiety. Bashir also admitted he had repeatedly lied under oath to two grand juries and he had repeatedly lied to FBI agents, even after he began cooperating. Defense attorneys questioned him why the jury should believe him now when he had lied so many times in the past.
They will continue cross examining Abdirahman Bashir when the trial resumes tomorrow morning.