Obama Admin. Releases Unredacted Transcript of Orlando Terrorist’s 911 Call After Intense Backlash

The Obama administration has released the unredacted transcript of the phone call the terrorist who carried out the mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub made to 911 during the attack.

A makeshift memorial for the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting, June 15, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. The shooting at Pulse Nightclub, which killed 49 people and injured 53, is the worst mass shooting in American history. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a redacted transcript earlier Monday, and were met with backlash from lawmakers and the public.

Hours later, the agencies released the unredacted transcript, in which Mateen pledges allegiance to “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State.”

Here is the unredacted transcript of Omar Mateen's 911 call: pic.twitter.com/lTBNJnvKya

— Kate Scanlon (@kgscanlon) June 20, 2016

In a joint statement, spokespersons for the Justice department and the FBI said:

“The purpose of releasing the partial transcript of the shooter's interaction with 911 operators was to provide transparency, while remaining sensitive to the interests of the surviving victims, their families, and the integrity of the ongoing investigation. We also did not want to provide the killer or terrorist organizations with a publicity platform for hateful propaganda. Unfortunately, the unreleased portions of the transcript that named the terrorist organizations and leaders have caused an unnecessary distraction from the hard work that the FBI and our law enforcement partners have been doing to investigate this heinous crime. As much of this information had been previously reported, we have re-issued the complete transcript to include these references in order to provide the highest level of transparency possible under the circumstances.”

According to the Associated Press, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Sunday that she would release an edited transcript of Mateen’s 911 call.

“What we’re not going to do is further proclaim this man’s pledges of allegiance to terrorist groups, and further his propaganda. We are not going to hear him make his assertions of allegiance [to the Islamic State],” she said.

In a statement, House Speaker Paul Ryan called “selectively editing” the transcript “preposterous.”

“We know the shooter was a radical Islamist extremist inspired by ISIS. We also know he intentionally targeted the LGBT community,” Ryan said. “The administration should release the full, unredacted transcript so the public is clear-eyed about who did this, and why.”

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