Attorney says Rahami will be brought to federal court in ‘near future’

HACKENSACK, N.J. » As a defense attorney asked for an immediate federal court hearing for the Elizabeth man who allegedly committed two bombings in New York and New Jersey, people across the region remained anxious this evening, when a portion of a highway in the Bronx was closed after a pressure cooker was found in an underpass and later deemed not to be a bomb.

Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, who was captured after a shootout in Linden on Monday, remained in a Newark hospital where he was being treated for gunshot wounds. An attorney with a legal aid group wrote in federal court papers that Rahami has been questioned for days without access to legal representation.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said earlier today that Rahami would be brought “in the near future” to federal court in lower Manhattan, not far from the Chelsea neighborhood where he allegedly set off a bomb Saturday night injuring more than 30 people.

On Wednesday evening, a portion of the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx was shut down while police investigated a package containing a pressure cooker located in an underpass near East 134th Street and Alexander Avenue. Police sent a bomb squad to the scene, according to the report, and said they did not find wires or a cellphone with the package, items that typically are used in pressure cooker bombs.

Meanwhile, the estranged mother of Rahami’s child attempted to have the child’s name changed amid intense media attention in New Jersey, and the FBI asked for the public’s help in finding two men who removed a bomb from a suitcase in Manhattan, perhaps inadvertently rendering it unable to explode.

Federal authorities filed charges Tuesday against Rahami, a naturalized U.S. citizen who graduated from Edison High School in 2007, alleging he was inspired by overseas terror groups, referred to the late leader of al-Qaida as “Brother Osama bin Laden,” and had been plotting the bombings for months, purchasing some of the components on eBay using his own name. On Monday, Rahami was charged with the attempted murder related to a shootout with Linden police.

While authorities have said they are looking into Rahami’s travels overseas to his home country of Afghanistan and to Pakistan, there was nothing in the complaint indicating he had help building the bombs or planting them. Authorities recovered a cellphone video from the camera of one of Rahami’s relatives showing an igniter for a bomb being set off in a backyard. Only Rahami was seen in the video.

A pipe bomb detonated along the route of a Marine Corps charity run in Seaside Park on Saturday morning and a pressure cooker bomb went off on West 23rd Street in Manhattan, where at least 31 people were injured. Another pressure cooker bomb found on West 27th Street did not detonate. Two men were seen in surveillance video removing it from a suitcase, taking the bag but leaving the bomb. Five unexploded bombs were found in a backpack near an Elizabeth train station.

On Wednesday, the FBI released a photo of the two men who removed the bomb from the suitcase on 27th Street. Authorities said they did not believe they were involved in the bombings and added that the men were lucky that they did not set off the pressure cooker bomb. They were seen walking on West 27th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues about 8:52 p.m.

In New Jersey, an Edison woman was awarded full custody of the child she had with Rahami on Tuesday, according to court records released Wednesday. However, a Superior Court judge in Middlesex County denied her emergency request to change the child’s name, according to the records. The judge also denied the mother’s request to order the media not to have contact with her or her child. The court said it had no authority to grant the requests.

Since 2008, the mother, Maria J. Mena, has been engaged in a court battle with Rahami over custody and support of their child. Rahami allegedly violated a restraining order barring contact with Mena and was behind on child support payments, records show.

Elsewhere, federal authorities and a defense attorney sparred in court documents filed on Wednesday over Rahami’s status.

David E. Patton, director of Federal Defenders of New York, said in court papers that Rahami has been “held and questioned by federal enforcement agents since his arrest,” and he asked a judge to schedule a hearing, adding that his office would represent Rahami by phone if he is unable to travel to New York. Patton did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Federal prosecutors responded by saying in court papers that Rahami technically has not been arrested on the federal charges and that Patton’s requests were “premature.”

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©2016 The Record (Hackensack, N.J.)