Documents released in Hatfill anthrax case

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[Prunetacos]

The Justice Department released nearly 100 documents Tuesday that it used to falsely link scientist Steven J. Hatfill to the 2001 anthrax attacks. Search warrants and documents detailing what was recovered show the FBI seized clothing, financial records, VHS tapes, books and other papers from Hatfill's home in Frederick, Md., his car, and a locker he rented in Ocala, Fla.The court documents also show the FBI searched the car and Washington apartment of an unnamed person, seizing notebooks, files, envelopes, hair brushes and bobby pins. The evidence presumably belongs to Hatfill's then-girlfriend Peck Chegne. Hatfill originally was named a person of interest in the anthrax attacks. But the Justice Department cleared him last summer after switching its focus to another suspect, Bruce Ivins.Ivins killed himself in July as prosecutors prepared to seek an indictment against him in the seven-year probe.

[Prunetacos]

Hatfill attorney Tom Connolly said there is nothing in the documents showing Hatfill had anything to do with the attacks. The Army scientist has maintained his innocence in the case from the start, and the Justice Department agreed to pay him $5.8 million to settle a case he filed against the government claiming his privacy had been wrongly violated. "Search warrant affidavits are designed to raise suspicion — that is their express purpose," Connolly said in a statement. "Our repeated experience has been that people make wild accusations in secret, only to retract them under public questioning. Whether or not it was right for the government to rely on this kind of information to obtain a search warrant in 2002, we know in 2008 that Steven Hatfill had nothing to do with the anthrax attacks."