New Yorker Who Married ISIS Fighter at 18 is Currently Facing First U.S. Trial as Female Alleged Terror Group Member

 

Halima Salman, a New Yorker who was 18 when she married an ISIS fighter in Syria, is now on trial in federal court in Brooklyn as the first woman accused of belonging to the terror group to face a full U.S. trial.

Prosecutors have argued that Salman is an ISIS-trained fighter who handled an AK-47 and received military instruction from a female battalion.

Salman has testified that her father forced the family into ISIS territory and arranged the marriage against her will. 

Born in Brooklyn in 1999 to an American mother and a Turkish father, Salman, now 27, was brought along with her eight siblings into Syria in 2016. She was 17 at the time.

After she turned 18, she married an ISIS member known as Abu Ali, an Afghan-German fighter.

Prosecutors say his family paid a $5,000 dowry and that the wedding took place in front of an ISIS flag.

Salman has claimed the ceremony was held in a dingy room that looked like a garage and that she was scared. 

“I was scared. I had a very bad feeling about it. I was wondering if this was what was supposed to happen to me. My heart was burning,” Salman testified.

During the trial, jurors saw cellphone video of Salman holding and walking with an AK-47 inside her husband’s home in Syria while saying, “You have to walk like…” before asking if he was filming.

Prosecutors say she received training from Nusaybah Katiba, an all-female ISIS unit made up mainly of fighters’ wives. They also introduced a handwritten document recovered from her husband’s phone that purportedly certified she was qualified to carry a Kalashnikov and ammunition.

Defense lawyers have questioned the document’s authenticity and argued the government has not shown exactly what training she received.

A selfie of Salman in front of an ISIS flag was also shown.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Shami told the jury during closing arguments that “the evidence shows that the defendant received training from a violent, brutal, terrorist organization.”

Shami added that the video indicated it was “not her first time with a weapon.”

Salman took the stand and claimed that she does not support ISIS.

“I believe that ISIS did very scary things which deceive the way Islam is visioned,” she testified, according to the New York Daily News.

She described being forced to change from a blue hijab to a black one and a veil, living under strict rules, and spending two years in ISIS territory followed by five years in a Kurdish-run detention camp after the group’s collapse.

Salman’s father was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2018. 

Salman was arrested at JFK Airport in 2024 after she and other family members were repatriated from Syria by the State Department.

The alleged terrorist is free on a $500,000 bond and has been living with relatives in New Hampshire.

If convicted, Salman faces a maximum of 10 years for knowingly receiving military training from a terrorist organization.

Her mother, Brandy, an Arkansas native, has attended the trial.

No other family members face charges.

Her ex-husband is believed to be in an Iraqi jail.

The trial began earlier this month, and prosecutors have rested their case.

Defense closing statements are scheduled for Thursday.

Body Language Expert Says Ilhan Omar Showed ‘Countless Signals of Deception’ While Begging for Cash After DC Home Raid

 

Body language expert Lillian Glass has assessed that Rep. Ilhan Omar displayed multiple signs of tension, nervousness, and deception in a video she posted on Tuesday asking supporters for money after federal agents raided her Washington home as part of an immigration fraud investigation.

Glass has served as an expert witness in federal and state courts and has four decades of experience.

Speaking to the New York Post, Glass described Omar’s smile as nervous, noting that her eyes were not smiling. 

“The lips curve downward; the raising of her eyebrows reflect that she is questioning her own words,” Glass said.

Glass added that the raised eyebrows also suggested she was surprised by the situation.

The expert also pointed to raised shoulders, head shakes that did not match affirmative statements, and an upward inflection on the word “me” when Omar said officials were trying to intimidate her.

“There are also countless signals of deception, from her raised shoulders to her shaking her head not when she should be shaking it,” Glass explained. “She goes upward in her inflection on the word ‘me’ as she says ‘trying to intimidate “me,”’ as though she is asking a question. This is significant and a signal of deception.”

Glass also noted lip licking as a sign that Omar’s autonomic nervous system was active. 

In an X post analyzing the video, Glass wrote that Omar’s body language appeared “far less confident than her words” and showed “numerous verbal and nonverbal inconsistencies,” including filler words such as “uh” while discussing fighting the Trump administration.

Glass stressed that the observations were not proof of deception but highlighted a contrast between Omar’s message and how she delivered it.

In the video, Omar said President Trump and his allies are “running scared” and that “we’re not going to be intimidated.” She asked supporters to donate $5, $10, or $20.

It was her first on-camera public statement since the raid.

Homeland Security Investigations agents executed a search warrant at Omar’s DC home on October 12 as part of a criminal investigation into possible false statements on immigration paperwork filled out by her late father, Nur Omar Mohamed, when the family entered the U.S. as Somali refugees in the mid-1990s and later sought citizenship.

Investigators are examining whether Omar was actually 18 rather than 17 when her father naturalized in 2000, which would have made her ineligible for derivative citizenship as a minor.

Records reportedly list conflicting birth dates.

Agents seized her cellphone, passport, computers, and notebooks.

Lefty Florida Mayor Arrested on Charges of Grand Theft, Organized Scheme to Defraud

 A lefty Florida mayor was arrested on charges of grand theft and organized scheme to defraud, Attorney General James Uthmeier announced on Wednesday.

Kissimmee Mayor Jackie Espinosa was handcuffed and taken into custody early Wednesday morning.

Details about the charges and criminal accusations were not immediately available. 

Espinosa has been mayor of Kissimmee since 2024.

Florida officials will hold a press conference on Espinosa’s arrest at 2 pm ET on Wednesday.

Per AG Uthmeier: This morning, we arrested Kissimmee mayor Jackie Espinosa and are charging her with Grand Theft and Organized Scheme to Defraud. 

We will be holding a press conference at 2pm at our Orlando office with CFO Ingoglia and FDLE Commissioner Keefe to provide more information.

Elon Musk Reveals Austin Mass Shooter Was Fired by Tesla After Allegedly Assaulting 65-Year-Old Woman During Prayer Break — Months Later, He Murdered Three Innocent People in Texas

 

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has revealed disturbing new details about the man responsible for the deadly March mass shooting in downtown Austin, Texas, alleging that the gunman had previously been fired from Tesla after violently assaulting a female employee who accidentally stepped on his prayer rug.

The gunman, identified as 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne, a Senegal-born naturalized American citizen, opened fire outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden on March 1, 2026, killing three people and injuring 15 others before being fatally shot by responding police officers.

Now, Musk is speaking publicly about an alleged workplace incident that occurred just three months before the deadly rampage. 

During an October 20 interview with biographer Walter Isaacson on The Builders, Musk described how Diagne allegedly attacked a female coworker inside Tesla’s Austin manufacturing facility in December 2025.

According to Musk, the woman inadvertently stepped onto Diagne’s prayer rug while he was praying in the factory.

Rather than simply addressing the accident, Diagne allegedly responded with physical violence. 

“We had someone who was working at the Tesla factory in Austin until December of last year. He was fired because he assaulted a woman who stepped on his prayer rug in the factory.”

Musk continued:

“She accidentally stepped on his prayer rug and he assaulted her. Violently assaulted her.”

The billionaire entrepreneur said Tesla terminated Diagne’s employment following the incident.

Then came the horrifying events of March 1.

Musk explained that, months after the alleged assault, the former employee opened fire outside a crowded downtown Austin bar, killing three people.

He concluded with a pointed question about immigration and public safety:

“Now, I think we shouldn’t let people like that into the country. Do you?”

WATCH:

Tesla Faces Lawsuit Over Earlier Assault

Musk’s account is consistent with significant details of a lawsuit filed in March by Lillian Mendoza Brady, a 65-year-old Tesla employee who claims Diagne violently assaulted her during a company-authorized prayer break on December 4, 2025. 

According to CBS News, Brady’s attorney, Robert Hilliard, said Diagne grabbed the woman and threw her to the ground while praying in a common area at Tesla’s facility.

The lawsuit accuses Tesla of negligence, alleging the company knew or should have known about Diagne’s aggressive tendencies and failed to provide adequate protection for employees.

Brady is seeking more than $1 million in damages.

Her attorney said she did not learn the identity of her alleged attacker until she recognized Diagne’s photograph in news coverage of the Austin massacre.

The Travis County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it had investigated the assault allegation but closed the case following Diagne’s death.

Musk’s statement that Diagne was fired for the incident adds a significant detail to the public record. The lawsuit and contemporary reports document the alleged assault, but the precise circumstances of Diagne’s termination have not been independently established.

Three Innocent Lives Lost in Downtown Austin

On March 1, Diagne drove into Austin’s entertainment district and opened fire on people gathered outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden.

Authorities identified the three victims as:

• Savitha Shan, 21, a University of Texas student.

• Ryder Harrington, 19, a Texas Tech University student.

• Jorge Pederson, 30, the third victim who died from his injuries.

Although Musk referred to all three victims as students, publicly available reporting identifies two as college students.

Diagne was reportedly wearing clothing displaying religious and Iranian imagery, including the words “Property of Allah.”

The FBI initially investigated the possibility of a terrorism-related motive.

However, in its May 7 investigative update, the FBI concluded that Diagne acted alone and found no evidence of outside direction or radicalization. Investigators identified escalating violent behavior and personal grievances involving U.S. and Israeli military actions against Iran as contributing factors.