Reporters: Hatfill Attorney Gave Leads On Anthrax Investigation

By: A former Army scientist is partly to blame for news stories identifying him as a suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks, two reporters have told a federal judge.

In a lawsuit, Steven J. Hatfill accuses the Justice Department of violating the federal Privacy Act by giving journalists information about the FBI's investigation of him. Hatfill, who worked at the Army's infectious diseases laboratory at Fort Detrick from 1997 to 1999, was publicly identified as "a person of interest" in the investigation by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft.

A federal judge has ordered five journalists to reveal their sources. Two of them face possible contempt charges for refusing: James Stewart, formerly of CBS News, and Toni Locy, a former Associated Press reporter who wrote about Hatfill while working at USA Today.

In court documents filed on Dec. 19, the two journalists said Hatfill's own attorney provided them with a lot of information and encouraged them to report it. The reporters confirmed some of that information with officials at the Justice Department and the FBI ? agencies Hatfill is now suing for leaking.

Several law enforcement officials have already acknowledged talking to reporters in the case, making the journalists' cooperation unnecessary, attorneys wrote.

"Hatfill seeks contempt sanctions against a news reporter whose testimony he no longer needs, for a failure to testify that has done him no harm, arising from disclosures he himself instigated," attorneys for Stewart wrote.

With the consent of their sources, Stewart identified one FBI official and Locy's attorneys identified an FBI official and a former Justice Department official. Stewart refuses to reveal three other FBI sources and Locy refused to reveal any of her remaining contacts, Hatfill's attorneys have said.

Locy has testified that she could not remember specifically who told her information about Hatfill and she refused to disclose which officials she spoke to while reporting generally on the anthrax investigation.

Hatfill's attorneys have asked U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton to fine the reporters $1,000 per day until they cooperate. The proposed fine would increase to $2,000 after a week and continue to increase $1,000 every week. Attorneys also asked that media corporations be prohibited from paying the fines for the reporters.