As the Fieger trial develops, the testimony is gripping.

Under questioning Thursday from Justice Department trial lawyer Kendall Day Harrington acknowledged that his $2,000 check would have bounced but for the $2,000 reimbursement he received from the Fieger firm.

Harrington, testifying under a grant of immunity, described his fright at being interviewed by FBI agents who swarmed the law firm on Nov. 30, 2005, and recounted how prosecutors summoned him to their office to go over his grand jury testimony before Fieger and Johnson were charged and before he testified at trial.

Spence is trying to show that the Justice Department officials in Washington were out to get Fieger, a 1998 Democratic candidate for governor.

Under questioning from Johnson lawyer Steve Fishman, Harrington said Johnson never did anything to suggest that the donation and reimbursement were improper and that he was stunned when agents confronted him with his $2,000 check during the raid.

“I don’t believe Mr. Johnson would have put me in harm’s way,” Harrington said, bolstering defense contention that Fieger and Johnson didn’t “knowingly or willfully” violated federal law.

U.S. District Judge Paul Borman told jurors today that the men had to intend to break the law to be convicted, even though Borman has ruled that federal law prohibits reimbursements.