Fearful For His Safety, FBI's Prized Hacker-Turned-Informant Again Ditches Court Appearance

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Fearful For His Safety, FBI's Prized Hacker-Turned-Informant Again Ditches Court Appearance

The FBI’s prized hacker-turned-informant who snitched on his “Anonymous” cronies remained in hiding today, again failing to appear for a court appearance due to what his lawyer said were “security issues and physical threats.”

Hector “Sabu” Monsegur, 28, was scheduled today to appear in Manhattan Criminal Court for arraignment on a criminal impersonation charge.

However, when his case was called around 12:15 PM, Monsegur, pictured above, was not present in the fourth-floor courtroom of Judge Diana Boyar. Instead, lawyer Peggy Cross-Goldenberg asked the jurist to waive her client’s appearance due to “security issues and physical threats,” adding that Monsegur was concerned about his safety were he to appear at the courthouse.

After a prosecutor consented to proceed without Monsegur present, Boyar announced that his case was being adjourned for six months in contemplation of dismissal. In effect, if he stays out of trouble during that period, the misdemeanor count will be dropped.

Monsegur has reportedly been under federal protection since early-March, when his cooperation with the FBI became public. His work with the bureau resulted in the indictment of five of his former cronies from “Anonymous,” the online hacking collective.

It was during the course of Monsegur’s active cooperation that he was arrested by NYPD officers outside his apartment building in a housing project on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. According to the criminal impersonation complaint, when a cop asked him for ID, Monsegur reportedly said, “Relax. I’m a federal agent. I am an agent of the federal government.”

Monsegur had first been scheduled to show up in court on March 12, but that appearance was adjourned until today after Cross-Goldenberg and a prosecutor held an off-the-record chat with a judge (who later announced that the case was being adjourned due to “extraordinary circumstances”).