By: Jimmy Hoffa's 1975 disappearance is "the ultimate cold case" and the U.S. government has no compelling reason to withhold an affidavit used to obtain a warrant to search a Michigan farm for his remains, a newspaper's attorney argued Friday.
Detroit Free Press lawyer Herschel Fink told U.S. District Judge Marianne Battani during a hearing that the only possible justification for keeping the document secret is to conceal the government's embarrassment at the long and unsuccessful effort to prosecute those suspected of killing the ex-Teamsters leader.
Alan Gershel, assistant U.S. attorney, said the case remains alive, and the release of the document would violate promises of confidentiality made to witnesses in the case.
The Free Press is asking the court to order the government to release the affidavit that was the basis for a search warrant that allowed FBI agents to dig at a Milford Township horse farm over two weeks in May.
The FBI search at Hidden Dreams Farm involved 15 to 20 FBI agents, 24-hour guards on the property, anthropologists, archaeologists, a demolition crew and cadaver-sniffing dogs.
The agency has said it isn't giving up its search for the people responsible for Hoffa's disappearance, even though its latest effort produced little more than buried trash.
"The FBI does not give up and will pursue all logical investigations, no matter how much time has passed," FBI agent Judy Chilen said May 30 in announcing the end of the dig at the farm 30 miles northwest of Detroit.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here