Court
© ReutersDefendant Laguerre Payen raises his hand to be sworn in as seen in this sketch of his arraignment in White Plains, New York.
It's the fried-chicken defense.

A lawyer for one of four men accused of plotting to bomb Bronx synagogues complained on Thursday that a government informant plied the suspects with food.

"You can't watch the tapes that you don't see eating going on," said Marilyn Reader, lawyer for accused would-be terrorist Laguerre Payen.

"The [confidential informant] is paying for all these meals."

At a pretrial hearing in White Plains Federal Court, Reader charged that the informant had a charge account at a Crown Chicken on Broadway and let Payen eat for free.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Leibowitz said he would investigate whether the informant offered inducements - of the chicken variety or otherwise - to the suspects.

"I'm going to inquire as to whether there was a Crown Chicken relationship," he said.

Defense lawyers are arguing that their clients were entrapped and paid to take part in the plot uncovered in May.

They also claimed that prosecutors did not turn over a tape of a conversation on April 23 that supposedly captured the suspects hatching the plot.

"No recording was ever made," Leibowitz said.

The four men are set to stand trial on June 14.