FBI Shares More McVeigh Files

Timothy J. McVeigh’s attorney said he received several hundred more pages of FBI materials Wednesday.

The disclosure was the first indication the FBI has found hundreds more documents since it first admitted two weeks ago that it had discovered 3,135 pages that were supposed to have been given to McVeigh’s lawyers before his trial.

Nathan Chambers, McVeigh’s attorney, said Wednesday’s delivery was the fourth since the FBI disclosed that it had turned up new documents. He said he received 100 to 200 pages last week and an additional 500 pages Friday. Federal prosecutors turned over the first 3,135 pages two weeks ago.

Chambers declined to say whether he will seek more time to go over the new information. “We have several options under consideration,” he said.

Meanwhile, government attorneys asked a federal judge whether the newly discovered documents could be turned over to prosecutors handling Terry L. Nichols’ state trial in the Oklahoma City bombing.

In a court filing Wednesday, federal prosecutors said they saw no reason to withhold the newly released documents from Oklahoma authorities since other investigative reports had been turned over.

“The United States is interested, as it has been throughout these proceedings, in producing to Oklahoma state authorities the same materials made available to these federal defendants so the state can discharge its sovereign responsibilities,” prosecutor Sean Connelly wrote.

U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch ordered attorneys for McVeigh and Nichols to submit responses to the prosecutors’ request by Wednesday.

McVeigh’s lawyers sifted through documents Wednesday as Justice Department attorneys weighed whether to make public details about the material the FBI belatedly turned over.

“All I can say is that we’re working hard,” said Richard Burr, a Houston death penalty expert on McVeigh’s legal team. “There’s a lot of pressure, no question about it.”

More than 3,100 documents were discovered as the FBI was gathering all materials that were part of the Oklahoma City bombing investigation. They were supposed to have been turned over to McVeigh’s lawyers before his trial. The discovery led the Justice Department to postpone McVeigh’s execution for one month, to June 11.

McVeigh’s lawyers are trying to determine whether there is anything in the documents that might prompt McVeigh to ask for an appeal or stay of his execution.

“If we’re in a position to file anything, we need to do so sooner than later,” Burr said Tuesday.

The Justice Department and the FBI say nothing in the documents would cast doubt on McVeigh’s guilt or conviction. Much of the material consists of interviews and information about “John Doe No. 2,” a possible accomplice who never materialized.

Other documents provided no relevant information about the investigation, but they were filed anyway, officials said.

Under a court order, the documents cannot be made public. The Justice Department is looking at whether to provide some details about them in federal court in Denver, where McVeigh’s trial was held, said a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

An Oklahoma state court hearing for Nichols, scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed for one week to allow both sides to review the FBI evidence.

A federal jury convicted Nichols, 46, on federal involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy charges, and he was sentenced to life in prison. He now faces state charges of 160 counts of first-degree murder for the April 19, 1995, federal building bombing that killed 168 people and injured more than 500. State prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.

They have complained to a judge about delays in getting access to the newly discovered documents.

In a telephone conference with District Judge Ray Dean Linder last week, Oklahoma County Assistant Dist. Atty. Sandra Howell-Elliott said the FBI had not complied with her request for the documents.

“We have tried really hard not to air with the court or with the public that we’ve had difficulties with the federal government from the beginning, but we have,” she said. “It has not been a cooperative effort.”