Pulse gunman's widow seeks to file lengthy argument in motion to suppress evidence in criminal case

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ORLANDO, Fla. — Noor Salman’s attorneys filed a new court document Wednesday, asking the court for the ability to file a lengthy motion to suppress evidence in the upcoming trial against her in connection with the Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando.

The court has limited the length of motions in the case to 25 pages, but Salman’s attorneys argued that they needed “additional pages in order to fully present all of the relevant facts and legal arguments” in her case.

Suppressing evidence in the case, including “alleged statements” made by Salman to investigators, “is one of the major issues to be decided prior to trial,” Wednesday’s filing said.

Salman is accused of helping her husband plan and carry out the June 12, 2016, attack at Pulse nightclub that left 49 people dead and scores injured.

Earlier in August, prosecutors released new details in their case against Salman, including that she allegedly deleted text messages from her phone.

Among those text messages was “one informing (Pulse gunman Omar Mateen) of the cover story she had devised” for him, a prosecution court filing said.

If those text messages have been recovered, “this is almost a smoking gun in the government’s case,” WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said at the time of the filing. “The defendant has provided a lot of evidence against herself.”

That is the evidence Salman’s attorneys will seek to suppress in the lengthy motion they plan to file in the near future.

Salman’s attorneys had asked for up to 35 pages for their motion, but the judge in the case approved only 30 pages in an order filed later in the day Wednesday.

"ENDORSED ORDER granting in part and denying in part [100] Motion for Leave to File as to Noor Zahi Salman (1). The Court will permit a single motion and memorandum of law not to exceed 30 pages in length. The assistance of local counsel for Defendant in editing the document to achieve these page limitations should be promptly obtained. Signed by Magistrate Judge Karla R. Spaulding on 8/30/2017."