By Pete Williams and Jim Popkin
NBC News
The Justice Department on Friday agreed to pay more than $5.8 million to Steven Hatfill, the former government scientist once branded by the Justice Department a person of interest in the deadly anthrax attacks of 2001. The legal settlement to Hatfill, in cash and an annual payments, signals the end of a civil lawsuit Hatfill brought against the Justice Department and FBI, accusing them of violating his privacy rights by improperly leaking sensitive information about the anthrax investigation to reporters.
"I think it's a gratifying end to a very sad chapter in [Hatfill's] life and that of the FBI and DOJ,” said Hatfill’s lawyer, Thomas Connolly, of the Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis law firm in Washington, D.C. “I'm hopeful that the settlement is punitive enough that they will learn their lesson" regarding the treatment of future suspects in high-profile criminal cases, he told NBC News.
Hatfill declined to comment today on the settlement.
The agreement states that it “should not be construed as an admission of liability or fault on the part of” the FBI or Justice Department. But legal experts are sure to see the settlement as a serious black eye for the FBI, because it has the effect of clearing Hatfill of any involvement in the lethal, envelope-born attacks.
Less than a year after the first anthrax mailing, in September 2001, Hatfill was publicly named a person of interest. “He is a person that the FBI has been interested in," said then-Attorney General John Ashcroft at a press conference in August 2002.
The anonymous mailings -- including a letter sent to NBC News -- killed five people, sickened 17 others, disrupted government offices, and alarmed an already jittery nation. As the investigation wore on, Hatfill was considered such a likely suspect that his home was searched -- twice -- as was his girlfriend's apartment.
FBI agents and Justice Department officials leaked key details about the case to willing reporters, according to depositions provided in Hatfill’s civil suit. The FBI kept the pressure on Hatfill by conspicuously tailing him in public, with one agent in an unmarked car once running over his foot.
Hatfill insisted from the beginning that he had no involvement whatsoever. “I had nothing to do with the anthrax letters, and it is terribly wrong to contend or think otherwise," he said at the time.
About two years ago, he sued the federal government, accusing officials of leaking false information about him and of telling prospective employers, including Louisiana State University, to fire him as an instructor teaching first responders how to handle unconventional attacks. He has said he was essentially unemployable for years, as a result of all the negative press attention.
With Friday’s settlement, it is clear that Hatfill is no longer a suspect. Seven years later, the case remains unsolved.
Today, a Justice Department spokesman said: “The government remains resolute in its investigation into the anthrax attacks, which killed five individuals and sickened others after lethal anthrax powder was sent through the United States mail. We commend the agents and law enforcement personnel who have devoted countless hours to the pursuit of the perpetrator of this horrible crime, and we reassure the public and the victims that this investigation remains among the Department’s highest law enforcement priorities.”
Hatfill's lawyers lashed out at the government and the media.
"Our government failed us, not only by failing to catch the anthrax mailers but by seeking to conceal that failure," Hatfill's lawyers said in a statement. "Our government did this by leaking gossip, speculation, and misinformation to a handful of credulous reporters." They added: "As an innocent man, and as our fellow citizen, Steven Hatfill deserved far better."
