Hatfill Receives $5.85M in Anthrax Case Settlement

Former U.S. Army biodefense researcher Steven Hatfill will receive $5.85 million from the Justice Department, which once identified him as a "person of interest" in the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people (see GSN, July 5, 2007).

The government agreed to the payout after months of mediation over Hatfill's lawsuit against the Justice Department, FBI and former Attorney General John Ashcroft.  It admitted no wrongdoing.

"I don't think anyone would believe the Department of Justice would … pay that kind of money unless they felt there was significant exposure at trial," said defense attorney Brian Sun.

In the wake of the anthrax attacks, Ashcroft singled out Hatfill in 2002 as a possible target of the investigation that to date has produced no arrests.  Investigators searched Hatfill's home, followed him and recorded his conversations.  The investigation and press scrutiny cost Hatfill his job as an instructor at Louisiana State University and made him essentially unemployable, said his attorney, Mark Grannis.

"As a result of the media circus they created and sustained, Dr. Hatfill must now carry on his scientific work largely independently," Grannis said in a prepared statement.  "This settlement will help him to do so."

The settlement deal provides for Hatfill to receive a $2.825 million lump-sum payment and an annuity that would provide $150,000 annually over the next 20 years.

Hatfill, 54, also unsuccessfully sued the New York Times for publishing columns on the case.  The scientist has appealed a federal court's decision to dismiss the lawsuit (see GSN, Feb. 2, 2007).

The anthrax investigation continues, said Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.  "This investigation remains among the department's highest law enforcement priorities," he said.

However, Representative Rush Holt (D-N.J.) argued in a statement that the FBI's faulty evidence collection and mistaken theory regarding the perpetrator proved that the anthrax case had been "botched from the very beginning."  He said he hoped to bring FBI Director Robert Mueller before a House Appropriations subcommittee to address the investigation (Carrie Johnson, Washington Post, June 28).

The Justice Department's intense focus on Hatfill severely undermined its investigation of the anthrax mailings, officials involved in the case told the Los Angeles Times.  Investigators failed to pursue potential suspects or leads as they sought evidence that might link the scientist to the crime, they said.

The emphasis on Hatfill lasted through late 2006, according to FBI agents.

"They exhausted a tremendous amount of time and energy on him," said one FBI agent who worked the case.  "I'm still convinced that whatever seemed interesting or worth pursuing was just basically nullified in the months or year following when ‘person of interest' came out about Hatfill."

Senior officials also ordered investigators to provide confidential information to political leaders.  That information was then regularly leaked to the media, allowing reporters to arrive at search scenes alongside the actual investigators (David Willman, Los Angeles Times, June 28).