WASHINGTON, 19 May — In a dramatic move fit for TV, the FBI acknowledged last week that more than 3,100 documents on the Timothy McVeigh bombing probe had not been turned over to prosecutors and to McVeigh’s defense attorneys — as required by law. The revelation postponed the execution of McVeigh, 33, who was to have been executed this week at a federal prison in Indiana for the murder of 168 people. The announcement also upset the nation’s confidence in the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Yesterday, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh — who recently resigned under criticism for his lackadaisical leadership — in his second day of public testimony before Congress, again took responsibility for the failure of the agency to deliver the documents.
Days before, he told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee, in a soundproof room, that none of the missing records were intentionally withheld or had any bearing on McVeigh’s guilt or innocence.
Freeh said the FBI was “taking some particular steps’ in dealing with the fact that the documents were not handed over, adding that the cause of the failure was not a technology problem. Original explanations for the missing documents had been blamed on ‘computer failure.’
In response to questions from the senators, Freeh conceded that “culture problems” within the bureau contributed to the FBI’s failure to turn over the records.
Freeh said agents and supervisors should have taken more seriously “the very clear and specific commands” that all McVeigh documents had to be given to prosecutors and defense attorneys. The FBI’s failure to turn over the records caused Attorney General John Ashcroft to delay McVeigh’s scheduled execution until June 11. Oklahoma officials now fear the bungled release of FBI documents could destroy the state’s last chance to sentence McVeigh’s alleged accomplice, Terry Nichols, to death.
In a move that dramatizes their desperation, Oklahoma County prosecutors this week subpoenaed FBI agents to deliver “any and all...newly discovered” files at the special hearing Wednesday in the country jail in Oklahoma City. Federal officials consider the subpoena unenforceable. But it serves to add indignity to an agency already overwhelmed by perceived incompetence and untrustworthiness.
