Free Republic

Just weeks before government scientist Bruce Ivins' suicide, a grand jury was convening on the third floor of the federal courthouse, near the U.S. Capitol, looking into the 2001 anthrax murders. Things weren't looking good for Ivins, the only suspect in the case. It was July 2008. His attorney, Paul F. Kemp, according to court documents reviewed by AOL News, had just filed court papers to become a death-penalty-certified attorney in the case -- a little-known fact. And the chief U.S. District judge in Washington, Royce C. Lamberth, had approved the request. "I thought this was a precaution to take....

As many as 100 FBI agents, federal prosecutors and other department employees are likely to be asked—possibly as early as the next few weeks—to sign broadly worded statements waiving any confidentiality agreements they had with journalists about the anthrax case, Justice officials tell NEWSWEEK. The waiver statement was recently ordered by a federal judge at the urging of lawyers for bioterrorism expert Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, who has filed a lawsuit alleging that government officials leaked damaging personal information about him in an effort to connect him with the anthrax attacks.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 - In a development that could undercut reporters' ability to obtain confidential information, Justice Department officials agreed Thursday to distribute to dozens of federal investigators in the 2001 anthrax case a document they can sign to release journalists from pledges of confidentiality. Lawyers for Steven J. Hatfill, a former Army bioterrorism expert, had sought the releases as a step toward questioning reporters about their sources in the case. Dr. Hatfill, who has been described by Attorney General John Ashcroft as a "person of interest'' in the anthrax investigation, is suing the government over leaks of a variety...

WASHINGTON -- The bioterrorism expert under scrutiny in the 2001 anthrax attacks filed a lawsuit Tuesday accusing Attorney General John Ashcroft and other government officials of trampling his constitutional rights and using him as a scapegoat for their failure to make an arrest in the case. Dr. Steven J. Hatfill claims that, by labeling him a "person of interest" in the case, Ashcroft and other federal authorities have destroyed his reputation and ruined his job prospects.

WASHINGTON (AP)--An attorney for the bioterrorism expert identified as a ``person of interest'' in the investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks lashed out at the FBI Friday for its round-the-clock surveillance of his client. The scientist, Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, appeared at a traffic court hearing to contest a $5 ticket stemming from an accident involving a federal agent who was tailing him. Hatfill lost the case and will have to pay the fine. Hatfill declined to comment afterward, but his attorney, Thomas Connolly, told reporters the ticket was the result of the ``unrelenting campaign of harassment the FBI has...

Where some see a crisis, others see an opportunity. Last fall, five victims were murdered by anthrax-laced letters, but according to recent reports in such diverse sources as the socialist New York Times and neo-conservative weekly standard, the feds now have dozens, even hundreds of potential suspects. But not according to Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, whom I have dubbed the Dr. Strangelove of the American Left, far and away the most quoted "scientist" in anthrax stories. Rosenberg, who neither teaches nor conducts research, is a tenured, activist professor of environmental science at New York State's performing arts college at Purchase,...