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INFORMANT ADMITS TO DEVISING WITNESS HARMING PLAN

A key informant at the trial of Manhattan lawyer Robert Simels admitted today that he planted the seed in a diabolical plot to harm a witness’s mother.

“It was my idea,” Selwyn Vaughn, 34, said during questioning by defense lawyer Gerald Shargel, who is representing Simels in his obstruction of justice case in Brooklyn federal court.

Vaughn, a former Guyanese gang member who is cooperating with the feds, secretly recorded a series of conversations with Simels, 62, in 2008 as the attorney prepared no-holds-barred defense for a notorious drug kingpin, Roger Khan.

Shargel grilled Vaughn about a taped meeting in Simels’ office where the lawyer and the informant talked about possibly harming the mother of a main witness against Khan in order to force the witness to retract his testimony.

“You get a certain key people. It would cause him to rethink his position. One thing I’ve learned is that a man, whether he’s a criminal or a preacher, he always values his mother,” Vaughn said on the tape.

“If you’re not certain with anyone else to be at your side, your mother very likely will be there,” the informant continued.

Simels later told Vaughn not to harm the witness’s mother, because it could be traced back to Khan.

Prosecutors claim Simels recruited Vaughn to bribe, intimidate and otherwise silence witnesses in the Guyanese drug lord’s case.

Shargel has argued that Simels was just playing along with Vaughn in a bid to get information and never intended to break the law.

During cross-examination, Vaughn said, “Previously, Mr. Simels and I had discussed persuading (the witness) to either change his testimony or not testify.”

Vaughn also admitted he and Simels never actually followed through on a scheme to pay cash to the witness’s girlfriend to get her to give false testimony.