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American Morning

Interview with Pat Clawson

Aired August 12, 2002 - 07:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Dr. Steven Hatfill, a former Army scientist under FBI scrutiny, is now on the offensive, defending his reputation. He says he's innocent, and will not be railroaded by the government's anthrax investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. STEVEN HATFILL, FORMER ARMY SCIENTIST: I acknowledge the right of the authorities and the press to satisfy themselves as to whether I am the anthrax mailer. This does not, however, give them the right to smear me and gratuitously make a wasteland of my life in the process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAFFERTY: Hatfill is one of some 20 to 30 people who have drawn the government's attention, because of their connection to biomedical research. The anthrax mailings last autumn killed five people.

Pat Clawson is a friend of Steven Hatfill, and a few moments ago, I talked to Clawson about the FBI investigation of his friend.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(on camera): The FBI is accused by your friend, Dr. Hatfill, of taking the hard drive off his computer, of giving the draft of a book that was on his computer to a reporter, and of being abusive to his girlfriend when they searched her apartment. Serious charges indeed.

Does he plan to do anything about these? Can he back them up? Is he going to take any legal action against the agents involved? What's the plan?

PAT CLAWSON, FRIEND OF HATFILL: Well, it's my understanding that his attorney, Victor Glasberg, will be filing a complaint today with the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, asking for an investigation into the FBI leaks associated with this matter.

Yesterday, about an hour before the news conference, we were contacted by ABC News, which told us they had a copy of his novel manuscript. Well, that's kind of interesting, because that was residing on the hard drive of the computer that the FBI confiscated.

So there is a pretty good question, Jack, as to how all of a sudden that manual -- that novel manuscript actually ended up in the news media's hands. It was supposedly on a computer in the safe custody of the FBI. CAFFERTY: All right, the FBI watched the news conference yesterday, and issued the following statement, and I want your reaction to this, if you would be so kind. It says -- quote: "We are not aware of any instance of where the FBI employees have ever named a suspect in the anthrax deaths investigation. And additionally, the FBI does not alert media to the serving of search warrants."

The indication being that the news media wouldn't have had any way of knowing about any of this. What's your response to that?

CLAWSON: Well, my response to that is, is it certainly takes an investigation by the Internal Affair's Division of the Justice Department, the Office of Professional Responsibility, to get to the heart of this matter.

Look, Jack, you and I have been news guys for a long time. I was a reporter for a long time, many years covering the FBI. And the FBI, when it wants attention, it lets reporters know when it's getting ready to do something. And I find it kind of ironic that these searches received very high amounts of publicity just minutes after -- for instance, Mr. Hatfill, in the first search several weeks ago, just minutes after he gave the FBI consent to go ahead and search, all of a sudden there are news copters hovering over his house, camera crews showing up. It was a pretty visible affair.

The FBI is very visible when it wants to be visible.

CAFFERTY: Let me get you to talk a little bit about Mr. Hatfill, your friend. The FBI is not looking at his apartment or his girlfriend's apartment without some reason. They didn't arbitrarily pick his name out of a hat. There is a reason they are interested in him.

Tell me a little about the man. There are reports, for example, that when he lost his security clearance back a while ago, he was, for a period of time, an extremely angry individual at the government, at his former employers, just angry in general.

CLAWSON: I am unaware of that at all. The Steve Hatfill I know is a very dedicated, very devout American patriot. He has been in the intelligence or military communities for many, many years. He has played by the rules.

You know, you mention the search of his apartment. The FBI also searched the apartment of that security guard down in Atlanta that they suspected of being involved in the Olympics bombing.

CAFFERTY: You're talking about Richard Jewel.

CLAWSON: You bet, Richard Jewell. And they had probable cause to be able to get a magistrate to issue a federal search warrant in that case, too. But you know, they didn't come up with anything, did they?

CAFFERTY: No. Has Mr. Hatfill said anything to you about his role in this at all? CLAWSON: His role in what, the anthrax mailings?

CAFFERTY: Yes.

CLAWSON: Yes, he has been adamant from day one when his name first started surfacing in the media as being a so-called "person of interest" that he had nothing to do with it. He didn't know anything about it at all. And I believe him.

CAFFERTY: All right, Pat, we've got to leave it there. I appreciate your candor and your time here this morning on AMERICAN MORNING. Pat Clawson joining us this morning from Washington, D.C. -- thanks for being with us.

CLAWSON: Thanks very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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