Justice Department runs and hides from its record:
Federal Judge Reggie B. Walton scolded the Justice Department for failing to stop leaks describing former Army scientist Steven J. Hatfill as a "person of interest" in the investigation of the anthrax attacks.
"It doesn't seem to me there's a significant likelihood of anything in the near future that's going to change the status quo," said Walton, who is presiding over a civil suit filed by Hatfill that accuses the Justice Department of defaming him and violating his privacy.
Walton told government lawyers that he was "extremely troubled" by recent newspaper articles that quote anonymous law enforcement sources as saying the FBI remains interested in Hatfill.
"They're undermining what this country is supposed to be about -- that is, that we treat people fairly," Walton said of the anonymous sources. "If you don't have enough to indict this man, then it's wrong to drag his name through the mud."
"That's not a government I want to be a part of.
It's wrong, and you all need to do something about it."
[Three years and counting...if we could only get Pariot Act II passed!!!]
Posted by bushmeister0
at 4:46 PM EDT
Updated: Saturday, 16 October 2004 4:49 PM EDT