AP, April 18

In anthrax lawsuit, lawyers ask reporters to disclose federal sources

Lawyers for a scientist investigated in the 2001 anthrax killings have questioned at least two journalists and are subpoenaing other reporters, seeking the identities of their confidential government sources.

Through a lawsuit, Steven Hatfill is trying to track down suspected leakers at the FBI and the Justice Department who made Hatfill the focus of news coverage regarding anthrax-laced letters mailed to members of the press and to two United States senators.

Hatfill's lawsuit alleges violations of the Privacy Act and his constitutional rights to due process and free speech.

Newsweek magazine reporter Michael Isikoff and ABC correspondent Brian Ross underwent questioning by lawyers for Hatfill in recent weeks, and both refused to identify their confidential sources.

Washington Post reporter Alan Lengel has been subpoenaed by Hatfill's lawyers, who also have expressed interest in questioning the Washington bureau chief of Newsweek magazine, Dan Klaidman.

A person familiar with the lawsuit said Hatfill's lawyers also plan to question CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart. CBS News declined to comment.

Kevin Baine, a private Washington attorney representing Newsweek, confirmed the information about the two reporters at the magazine. The Post confirmed the information about Lengel, and ABC News confirmed the information about Ross. A lawyer for Hatfill, Thomas Connolly, declined to comment April 11.

Hatfill says he lost his job as a government contractor after he was identified publicly as a person of interest in the probe.

Five people died in the anthrax attacks and 17 people were sickened. No one has been arrested.

Hatfill is a medical doctor and scientist with expertise in issues pertaining to biological warfare, though, according to his lawsuit, he never worked with anthrax.

According to the suit, his apartment was searched in 2002 amid a spate of publicity, a week after a university professor of environmental science voiced her suspicions about him to Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. Letters containing anthrax had been addressed to the two senators.

"Live television coverage of the June 25, 2002 search generated a huge number of follow-up articles in which Dr. Hatfill's name was consistently and disparagingly linked with the anthrax investigations," the lawsuit says. "These follow-up articles often contained new details about the investigations that were themselves leaked in violation of the Privacy Act."

The lawsuit names 30 reporters as having been involved in stories that "appear to contain illegal disclosures."

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