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American Morning
Additional Oklahoma City Bombing Files Found
Aired May 15, 2001 - 09:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And now to the Oklahoma City bombing investigation. More embarrassment still for the FBI, after a new report that still even more undisclosed documents have been found.
Our Jeanne Meserve is live in our Washington bureau with this developing story -- Jeanne, good morning.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.
CNN's Kelli Arena reporting that seven additional files were found at the FBI's Baltimore field office last Thursday. They were forwarded to McVeigh's attorneys last week, and FBI officials contend that these documents, like the others, do not do anything to contradict the guilty finding in Timothy McVeigh's trial.
Joining me from Capitol Hill is Senator Jeff Sessions. He's a Republican from Alabama and a member of Judiciary Committee.
Senator, first, your reaction to the news that more files have been found.
SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: It was disappointing. The fact is that the FBI and the prosecutors in a federal court case of any kind, particularly one this big, has as its goal to be absolutely correct and perfect without error, and it does appear that the FBI failed to obtain all the information from various offices around the country, not the ones apparently in Kansas City, but around the country and -- Oklahoma City, and around -- and they didn't get those in to the court.
Hopefully, as has been stated, they are not critical to the case and will make no impact on it, but it's a kind of error that really should not occur, particularly in a case of this importance.
MESERVE: Now blame has been placed on the FBI's outmoded computer system. Is that explanation adequate for you?
SESSIONS: It is a factor. The FBI and agencies rely on these computer systems, but it is their responsibility to have one that works. You simply can't allow documents of significant numbers not to be produced in a case, but a good computer system should identify every lead that's run in every city in the United States, identify the documents produced as a result of that so that there would be a much less likelihood of that being failed to be produced. MESERVE: The attorney general says his inspector general will be conducting an investigation. Will you also be holding hearings on the Hill and when?
SESSIONS: Yes. I expect to. I believe we should give the trial judge who will review all these documents -- I was a federal prosecutor and worked with the FBI for almost 15 years. That's what I did. I have great respect for the FBI.
But a prosecutor has got to be absolutely candid with the court. Attorney General Ashcroft did exactly the right thing. If there was a failure in getting every document that was supposed to be produced, he needed to bring that to the court's attention immediately, and the judge will have a hearing as to whether or not they would have any impact on the case.
Of course, McVeigh is basically admitting his guilt, so it should not really affect the guilt or innocence of McVeigh.
MESERVE: Very quickly, what responsibility does FBI Director Louis Freeh bear in this?
SESSIONS: Well, he's the leader of the organize, and every leader bears some responsibility, and this case was big enough that it should have had his attention. I think, in many way, he's an extraordinarily fine FBI director.
He was a federal prosecutor who knows how these cases go down. He tried some of the biggest criminal cases in American history, and -- personally, and so he knows it, and I assume it was not a -- any bad intent, but it was just the fact he did not know these documents were not being produced.
MESERVE: Senator Jeff Sessions, we have to leave it there. Thanks so much for joining us from Capitol Hill.
And, Daryn, today, Louis Freeh is up on Capitol Hill testifying before the intelligence committee. That is, however, a closed session -- back to you.
KAGAN: Jeanne in Washington. Thank you.
One week before the FBI's blunder was revealed, convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh apparently wrote to "The Houston Chronicle" stating that there never was a John Doe number two.
McVeigh's former attorney, Stephen Jones, has alleged that McVeigh was one of a group of conspirators, but McVeigh says -- and this is a quote here -- "Jones has been thoroughly discredited, so I'm not going to break a sweat refuting his outlandish claims point by point. The truth is on my side."
McVeigh goes on to ask, "Does anyone honestly believe that if there was a John Doe number two -- there is not -- that Stephen Jones would still be alive? Think about it," he writes. That handwritten letter was written on May 2nd. That's a week before the government pushed back McVeigh's execution date until June 11th.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: You think Stephen Jones is thinking about it now?
KAGAN: I think so.
HARRIS: He might be.
KAGAN: I think he's been thinking about it for the last few years.
HARRIS: No doubt. No doubt.
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