By Pete Williams, NBC News Justice Correspondent
Government documents made public Tuesday shed new light on the FBI's interest in Dr. Steven Hatfill, the former government scientist who was an early focus of much of the government's energy in investigating the 2001 anthrax mail attacks.
The government later ruled him out and agreed to pay him nearly $6 million to settle a lawsuit alleging violations of his privacy. The documents were drawn up to seek court approval for searching Hatfill's home, car, and storage locker, and the apartment of his girlfriend. They show that the FBI was deeply interested in Hatfill's background and what it considered an inconsistency in his statements about his activities around the time the letters were mailed.
According to an FBI investigator who sought the search warrants, Hatfill boasted of serving as a mercenary for the military in Rhodesia from 1979 to 1980, "during the very years Rhodesian military and intelligence units are believed to have employed toxic chemicals and biological agents against rebels in the closing years of a long and brutal civil war." During that period, the documents said, Rhodesia experienced the worst outbreak of anthrax in world history, confined to areas held by anti-government insurgents.
The search warrant applications said he also claimed to have advised Rhodesian sources on how to lace clothing with poison for distribution in provinces held by rebels.
The FBI also showed an intense interest in Hatfill's prescriptions for the antibiotic Cipro, which was then, and is now, considered the most effective for treatment of anthrax infections. FBI agents said he twice filled a prescription for Cipro at a pharmacy near his house -- each time, exactly two days before anthrax letters were mailed in September and October of 2001. But, the documents say, Hatfill denied that he took any of the medication during that period.
The search warrant applications also contain publicly known aspects of Hatfill's past, including a novel he wrote but never published about how terrorists could release deadly materials like anthrax in the US. They also note that he had once said that anthrax would be the biological agent most likely to be used in a terror attack.
"Our repeated experience has been that people make wild accusations in secret, only to retract them under public questioning," said Tom Connolly, Hatfill's lawyer, in response to Tuesday's document release. "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. It will be unfortunate for all involved if the release of these documents misleads anyone into thinking otherwise," he said.
Both Hatfill and the Justice Department opposed making the documents public, but a federal judge ordered them released at the request of news organizations. They claimed the material would provide a window into the FBI's performance during a case of national importance.
