GOODY TWO SHOES: “Person Of Interest” Steven Hatfill To Earn Lots Of Interest Income From Huge DOJ Payout
After a five-year battle to clear his name, U.S. Army bioweapons expert Steven J. Hatfill agreed to drop his libel suit against the Justice Department in exchange for a $5.85 million settlement. He had filed the suit when then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft named him a “person of interest” in the investigation of the still-unsolved 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people and infected 17 others, reports The Washington Post:
The agreement, in which the government did not admit wrongdoing … came after months of mediation in a case that pitted investigators and major news organizations against the scientist, who said his privacy rights had been violated in the race to solve the notorious crimes.
Hatfill, who once worked at the Army's elite biological-warfare research center at Fort Detrick, Md., has always maintained that he played no role in the mailing of lethal powder to lawmakers and media figures weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. He said information that law enforcement agents supplied to the media cost him a job and any chance of employment.
“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 Brian A. Sun, a defense lawyer who represented nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee in a leak case. …
“As a result of the media circus they created and sustained, Dr. Hatfill must now carry on his scientific work largely independently," according to the statement from Mark A. Grannis, who is representing Hatfill. "This settlement will help him to do so.”
Six reporters were also deposed in the suit, including former USA Today’s Toni Locy – who was held in contempt of court by U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton in February 2008 for refusing to reveal her sources and ordered to personally pay face a $500 fine per day for the week, $1,000 per day for the second, and $5,000 a day for the third.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press released a statement expressing “relief” that the settlement renders the appeal of the contempt order against Locy moot: “Toni Locy can hopefully breathe a sigh of relief that she will not have to identify more than a dozen former sources in the Justice Department.”
But Locy is hardly the Joan of Arc of journalism, argues Slate’s Jack Shafer:
Subpoena-defying reporters who dare judges to send them to prison are routinely portrayed in the press as First Amendment martyrs. This should come as no surprise. The guys writing the lionizing stories generally share their subjects' values. What else are they going to write, "Send the bum to jail"?
Although I have great admiration for some journalists who have held themselves above the law and committed acts of civil disobedience that have earned them a ticket to jail, not all subpoenas are created equal. And not every source arrangement outside of "on the record" should require conscionable reporters to go directly to jail if slapped with a subpoena.
Some reporters invite subpoenas by practicing what I call "poor source hygiene," granting confidentiality too liberally to sources who don't deserve it. …
Reporters and editors should understand that they have no legal or moral right to promise confidentiality to a source beyond what is recognized in the law. … If a journalist expressly promises more than the law allows, the promise is legally ineffective, like any other promise that is contrary to public policy. A journalist who knowingly deceives a source by promising more than the law authorizes should be subject to professional discipline and civil liability to the source. …
Locy and other reporters published anonymous government leaks that have damaged the life of a seemingly innocent man. …
Both the Post editorial and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press conclude that the fix for the Locy mess is the pending federal shield law.
In addition to perhaps being promiscuous in her promises of confidentiality, Locy claimed that she had thrown away her notes, and after interviewing several officials on an anonymous basis she could not remember who told her what. For its part, the Organization of News Ombudsmen sees nothing odd in her story, which is revealing in and of itself:
Judge Walton has criticized Locy for not keeping her notes, as though she should have anticipated a lawsuit and that she would be called to testify. At a hearing in February, he also seemed skeptical that Locy could not remember five years later what her sources had said. "I'm not suggesting that Ms. Locy would not be truthful," he said, "but it would be very convenient for reporters in this situation to just say, ‘I don't recall.'"
Locy said she had 10 to 12 sources at the Justice Department and the F.B.I. who talked with her about the anthrax investigation - and about many other stories she covered during her four years on the beat.
All the more reason that people should not assume that all “leaks” to the press are good and that anonymous sources should be trusted, points out Accuracy in Media ‘s Cliff Kincaid:
The case demonstrates that Hatfill’s reputation and career were ruined by FBI agents and other government officials leaking damaging but false information. One of the motives of the leakers was to convince the public they were making progress in the case and had solid leads and suspects. They used the media to mislead the public. Meanwhile, the real perpetrators, most likely associated with al Qaeda, got away with murder. In short, both the government and their media lapdogs blew it. They should all be forced to pay.
Accuracy in Media came to Hatfill’s defense early on. At an October 5, 2002, Accuracy in Media conference, Hatfill said, “Like many Americans I trusted that the news that would be presented to me on television and in the newspapers would be filtered and have some degree of accuracy. I took this for granted.” He quickly learned the truth - that reporters could be faithful mouthpieces of their misinformed and devious “sources.”
Unlike Richard Jewell, who was falsely accused of the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, The Stiletto hopes Hatfill lives long enough (second item) to enjoy every penny of the settlement.
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