Bioweapons expert sues Ashcroft

Bioweapons expert sues Ashcroft

WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 — The germ warfare expert who has been investigated in connection with the 2001 anthrax attacks sued Attorney General John Ashcroft and other government officials Tuesday, accusing them of violating his constitutional rights for political gain.

THE SCIENTIST, Steven Hatfill, a medical doctor and germ warfare expert, filed the lawsuit in federal court against Ashcroft, the FBI and several FBI and Justice Department employees.
He said in the court filing that by labeling him as a “person of interest” in the deadly anthrax attacks, Ashcroft and the other defendants purposely ruined Hatfill’s life.
“Mr. Ashcroft publicly identified Dr. Hatfill for a specific purpose — to suggest to the American public ... that the [Justice Department] and the FBI could be trusted, and that investigators were properly conducting the Amerithrax [anthrax] investigation, and that they were making substantial progress,” the complaint said.
“Mr. Ashcroft acted to protect both his department’s and his own political future and public image, at the expense of Dr. Hatfill’s constitutional rights,” it said.
Hatfill’s attorney, Thomas Connolly, told reporters that his client had nothing to do with anthrax attacks but had become a “scapegoat” whose life had been ruined by the probe.
Justice Department officials would not comment. They provided a copy of a memo from the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, dated January 2003, which said Ashcroft had committed no misconduct by describing Hatfill as a “person of interest.”

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Hatfill’s name has been mentioned for more than a year in connection with the anthrax mailings, which killed five people and sickened about a dozen others.
He has repeatedly denied involvement in the attacks and said he never worked with anthrax. He said government officials like Ashcroft violated Justice Department regulations by leaking information and calling him a “person of interest” in the probe.
The lawsuit says Hatfill has been subjected to 24-hour surveillance for months on end. It adds that he was fired from his job at the direction of the Justice Department and that his job prospects had been destroyed.
“The attorney general and his subordinates have taken Dr. Hatfill’s life as he knew it; they have made him a prisoner in his own home,” Connolly said. “All this without any evidence linking Dr. Hatfill to the attacks and without bringing any formal charges against him. This is not the way our criminal justice system is supposed to work.
“With no signs the government plans to temper its Kafkaesque punishment, Dr. Hatfill has brought this lawsuit in an effort to vindicate his rights,” he said.
The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages for the “year of hell that Dr. Hatfill has gone through,” Connolly said. He also is seeking an injunction prohibiting further violations of his constitutional rights and a declaration from the court that what occurred was wrong.

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