This stuff really runs in the family.
The mother of one of the San Bernardino terrorists who killed 14 people and injured 22 others at a Christmas party in 2015 will plead guilty to destroying evidence later this month.
Rafia Sultana Shareef, also known as Rafia Farook, will plead guilty to destroying a map her son, Syed Rizwan Farook, allegedly drew to plan the shooting, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
“Shareef admitted that she knew her son had produced the documents, and she believed it was directly related to his planning on the IRC attack,” her plea agreement claims.
Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik shot up the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino on Dec. 2, 2015, during an office Christmas party. Farook’s mother became aware of the terrorist plot after her son and daughter-in-law left their infant daughter with her, saying they were going to a doctor’s appointment.
“Prior to leaving the family home with her infant grandchild at 3:41 p.m., Shareef went into her son’s bedroom, grabbed at least one document that appeared to be a map, and fed it into a shredder, according to the plea agreement,” the U.S. Attorney’s statement read.
It’s a slap on the wrist, but that’s not surprising. She pleads to a minor charge, prosecutors get a win, without having to risk a trial.
And then there’s the nearly quarter million insurance policy.
She lived at the Redlands home where Rizwan Farook assembled explosives for the Dec. 2 attack but was not charged with any crime and denied knowing about the plot. She was the primary beneficiary of Rizwan’s $280,000 in life insurance policies, which are being held by a court after being paid by Minnesota Life Insurance. The Justice Department has attempted to seize the money as “assets derived from a federal crime of terrorism.”
If Farook didn’t know anything, then why did she destroy the map?
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