Drama as feds wrap Chelsea bomb case

ACCUSED CHELSEA bomber Ahmad Rahimi wanted to cause maximum death and destruction during the September 2016 blast that rocked the Manhattan neighborhood, prosecutors said Thursday during their closing arguments.

Rahimi is charged with eight counts in Manhattan Federal Court for the bombing on W. 23rd St. that injured 30 people. The feds also allege Rahimi, 29, placed a similar pressure cooker bomb on W. 27th St. that evening. Police found that device before it went off.

“He wanted to maximize the death, the devastation and the destruction” caused by the bombing, said Emil Bove, an assistant Manhattan U.S. attorney.

Bove’s 2½-hour closing included a lengthy discussion of evidence, peppered with mild theatrics. Early in his argument, he asked the jury “Who did these things?” and walked behind Rahimi’s chair, standing just inches from him. “This man did these things; the defendant, Ahmad Khan Rahimi, conducted these bombings … with evil in his heart,” Bove said, lingering near Rahimi.

The slightly unnerving moment was broken by Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Berman, who asked Bove to back away from Rahimi and return to the customary attorney area near the jury box.

Bove — who described Rahimi’s alleged acts as an “attack on the United States ... an attack intended to kill Americans” — said it was a “miracle” nobody died, but that didn’t weaken the case.

“There is no miracle defense. It is not a defense that no one died,” Bove insisted. “It’s not a defense that these bombs didn’t go off while being transported. It is not a defense that the bomb at 27th St. was defused before it could go off.”

Rahimi’s defense lawyers are expected to present their closing arguments Friday.