DA Wants Public Banned from Some Terrorism Trial Testimony

The Manhattan district attorney's office has asked to ban the public from the courtroom at the upcoming terrorism trial of Jose Pimentel when two informants and an undercover officer accused of entrapping the Bronx man testify.

Pimentel, 29, of Manhattan, was charged in 2011 with attempting to make a bomb, and his scheduled Feb. 24 trial will be the first under a state terrorism law. The FBI did not pursue a federal case due to concern about the informants' influence, sources say.

The district attorney's office contends that the safety of the two confidential informants and the NYPD undercover detective, who began probing Pimentel in 2009 based on online radicalism, could be jeopardized if they had to appear in open court, or give their real names.

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