Holt Statement on FBI Settlement With Steven Hatfill in Botched Anthrax Attack Investigation

Statement

HOLT STATEMENT ON FBI SETTLEMENT WITH STEVEN HATFILL IN BOTCHED ANTHRAX ATTACK INVESTIGATION

The following is a statement from Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) in reaction to today's announcement by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that it had agreed to pay former Army biowarfare expert Dr. Steven Hatfill $5.8 million in a settlement related to the FBI's previously naming Hatfill a "person of interest" in the investigation of the 2001 anthrax letter attacks on the United States. The attacks originated from a postal box in Holt's central New Jersey congressional district, disrupting the lives and livelihoods of many of his constituents:

"As today's settlement announcement confirms, this case was botched from the very beginning. The FBI did a poor job of collecting evidence, and then inappropriately focused on one individual as a suspect for too long, developing an erroneous ‘theory of the case' that has led to this very expensive dead end. The Bureau has for years stiff-armed the Congress every time it has sought information on the status of this case and the lessons learned from it. That is unacceptable. In the coming days, I will issue a request for Director Mueller to come before the House Committee on Appropriations' Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, which I chair, to explain this most recent development and provide the Panel with a status report on the investigation."

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