U.S. settles with anthrax mailings subject Steven Hatfill for $5.82 million

WASHINGTON – Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, the former Army scientist who was labeled a “person of interest” in the 2001 anthrax mailings, has won a $5.82-million settlement from the federal government, court documents filed today show.

Hatfill sued the Justice Department and FBI five years ago, alleging that repeated leaks of investigative details to the news media violated his right to privacy and ruined his reputation.

Former federal prosecutors knowledgeable about the case said that the government’s payout to Hatfill signifies that, in all likelihood, he will never be charged for the crimes.

The settlement marks a turning point in the investigation of the mailings, which in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks killed five people, prompted hundreds of others to seek treatment, disrupted mail service across the U.S. and closed a Senate office building in Washington for months.

More than six years after the FBI launched what would become one of its largest-ever investigations, the “Amerithrax” probe has yielded no arrests. The case remains unsolved.

A spokesman for the Justice Department, Brian Roerhkasse, said in a prepared statement that by agreeing to settle the lawsuit, the government “does not admit to any violation of the Privacy Act and continues to deny all liability in connection with Dr. Hatfill’s claims.” Roerhrkasse said that solving the anthrax case “remains among the department’s highest law enforcement priorities.”

Hatfill, who was trained as a physician and later researched how to counter the effects of deadly biological agents, has long insisted that he had nothing to do with the anthrax mailings. Hatfill’s lawyer, Thomas C. Connolly, said that his client would have no comment on the settlement.

Connolly and a law firm colleague, Mark A. Grannis, oversaw depositions that elicited sworn testimony from 37 witnesses. Those who were questioned under oath included former Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, who in August 2002 publicly labeled Hatfill a “person of interest.”

“We took this case to defend very fundamental principles of fairness,” Connolly said in an interview. “Whether we succeeded or not is for others to determine.”

The settlement calls for the government to make an immediate $2.82-million payment to Hatfill. Beginning in 2009, the government will pay Hatfill an additional annuity of $150,000 a year for 20 years, according to court papers.

The lawsuit was filed in August 2003, but U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton did not permit Hatfill’s lawyers to begin questioning FBI and Justice officials or news reporters for two more years. The government had opposed allowing agents and FBI leaders to be questioned, contending that the depositions could interfere with the investigation into the mailings.

In January, Hatfill’s lawyers told Walton at a hearing that, by questioning federal investigators and several news reporters, they had identified three officials who allegedly leaked confidential information to the media. The named officials – the former U.S. attorney for Washington, Roscoe C. Howard Jr., his former criminal division chief, Daniel S. Seikaly and an FBI spokesman, Edwin Cogswell – have not commented publicly about their alleged roles.

At the end of that hearing, Walton ordered attorneys for the government and for Hatfill to try to settle the case with the help of a mediator. Walton said that without a settlement, the lawsuit could have gone to trial as early as December.

On Feb. 19, Walton, who had reviewed four still-secret FBI memos about the status of the anthrax investigation, said: “There is not a scintilla of evidence that would indicate that Dr. Hatfill had anything to do with this.”

Grannis, one of Hatfill’s lawyers, said today: “If anybody in the country really knew what it was like to be Steven Hatfill for the past six years, nobody would trade places with him.”

The 2001 mailings – hand-addressed letters bearing tiny amounts of deadly anthrax powder – set off new waves of terror after the Sept. 11 attacks. The first letter arrived at the offices of American Media Inc. in South Florida. About Sept. 18, Robert Stevens, a 63-year-old photo editor, breathed in spores of the bacterium while examining a letter.

Stevens died on Oct. 5. Other letters laced with the same strain of anthrax were addressed to others in the media, including two network new anchors. Two other anthrax letters were addressed to members of the U.S. Senate.

Of the five anthrax-related deaths, two were of U.S. Postal Service workers in the Washington area.

Hatfill’s plight recalls some of the FBI’s biggest flops – including the targeting of Richard Jewell, a security guard who found a suspicious backpack just before it exploded at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Media accounts described Jewell as “the focus” of the FBI investigation into the bombing that killed one person and injured 100. Another man later confessed, and then-Atty. Gen. Janet Reno apologized to Jewell. She said the leaks harmed him and “caused the FBI extreme damage to its investigation.”

Jewell’s mother filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department and the FBI. In September 1999, the government settled by paying her $2,500.

Times researcher Janet Lundblad in Los Angeles contributed to this report.