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CNN Live Sunday

Interview With Mark Miller

Aired August 25, 2002 - 18:06   ET

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

CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: A former Army researcher says he is not the anthrax killer. Steven Hatfill made an emotional appeal in Virginia today, saying that the investigation by the Justice Department into last year's deadly mailings has ruined his life. CNN's Brooks Jackson now with more on Hatfill's statement.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKS JACKSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's getting personal. Former Army bioweapons researcher Steven Hatfill says he's being falsely accused by none other than the attorney general, John Ashcroft.

STEVEN HATFILL, FORMER ARMY RESEARCHER: Mr. Ashcroft has not only violated Justice Department regulations and guidelines, which bind him as the nation's top law enforcement official, but in my view he has broken the Ninth Commandment. Thou shalt not bear false witness.

JACKSON: Hatfill's attorney, Victory Glazberg (ph), called Ashcroft's actions "un-American," in a complaint he filed with the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, requesting an investigation and an apology. A Justice Department spokesman had no comment on that.

Officials won't call Hatfill a suspect in the mailing of anthrax letters that killed five persons last year, but Ashcroft has publicly called Hatfill a, quote, "person of interest." A term Hatfill says has no legal definition.

HATFILL: I, however, have a working definition. A person of interest is someone who comes into being when the government is under intense political pressure to solve a crime but can't do so.

JACKSON: At a Sunday afternoon news conference, he released copies of time sheets he said show he was working 11 to 14-hour days in McLean, Virginia, on the days the anthrax letters were mailed in Princeton, New Jersey, a 3.5- to 4-hour drive away. Hatfill also released photos he said were taken by his girlfriend the day after her apartment was searched by the FBI. He said they broke pottery and the glass on a framed painting.

No comment from the FBI.

And Hatfill said "The New York Times" had defamed him in columns written by Nicholas Christophe (ph), which he said falsely claimed Hatfill had failed polygraph tests three times this year. "The Times" said it had no comment.

Hatfill said he's now openly followed 24 hours a day by FBI agents, though none were apparent to reporters covering the sidewalk news conference outside his lawyer's office.

(on camera): Hatfill says he'll give the FBI a blood sample to show he wasn't exposed to anthrax and handwriting samples to show he wasn't the one who wrote the letters that contain the deadly anthrax spores.

Brooks Jackson, CNN, Alexandra, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLAWAY: Hatfill says there is no evidence linking him to the anthrax tacks, but investigators have not cleared his name. Will today's complaint make a difference in this investigation? Let's go right to Mark Miller. He's with "Newsweek" magazine. He's joining us to explain some of the things that happened today. He's been working on this story since the very beginning.

What a strange news conference that was today, Mark.

MARK MILLER, "NEWSWEEK": Well, it was very similar to the one that he had a couple of weeks ago. And I think it's part of their strategy of going on the offense to take back, you know, his public image that they believe has been sullied by the last few weeks.

CALLAWAY: Well, was this, Mark, just a P.R. move, or did we learn anything from this? I mean, it was interesting about releasing the time sheets and some of the photographs. What do you make of that?

MILLER: I thought the most interesting thing, actually, was the offer that they've made, and apparently the FBI has agreed to, which was to take the blood samples and the handwriting examples.

Now, whether that will be significant I think actually remains to be seen. As I understand it, the blood samples will show whether or not his blood contains any anti-bodies to the anthrax vaccine.

Now, he has said that he, like many researchers who worked for the government and for the private defense contractor that he was associated with, had been vaccinated a while back for anthrax, any exposure to anthrax. And so you would expect to find anti-bodies to anthrax in his blood.

CALLAWAY: Right.

MILLER: So I'm not quite sure...

CALLAWAY: What would we learn from the blood test if not...

MILLER: Exactly.

CALLAWAY: You know, so if he doesn't lose anything by offering to give the blood test.

MILLER: I think that's a good question.

CALLAWAY: Yeah, and the other question I have about all this is about the polygraph test. What are the facts in this, Mark? What do we really know about whether or not he passed the test, how many tests?

MILLER: Right. Well, you know, he has said that he was told by the FBI that he had passed the polygraph test that he had taken. Now, his -- at least his criminal defense attorney, who was not there today, knows full well that it is an established and recognized procedure by law enforcement to lie, actually, to the subject of an investigation to solicit information. You can lie and say whatever you want. The FBI can tell them, the subject of an investigation, whatever they feel like telling them, even if it's not the truth.

That may not be pleasant. That may not be, you know, what we'd like to think of our FBI agents, our police departments conducting themselves, but that's the way they do it. So...

CALLAWAY: Now we're running out of time.

MILLER: They may have told him that, but that may not be the truth.

CALLAWAY: Right. Mark, we are running out of time, but quickly, what do you think? Are we going to hear from the attorney general? Is this going to force them to make a move or a statement quickly?

MILLER: I don't think that this will, actually. I think they're going to continue to conduct their investigation, and we'll see where it takes us.

CALLAWAY: All right. Thank you very much for being with us today and sorting all this out. And it will be interesting to see how things develop. Mark Miller with "Newsweek." Thanks, Mark.

MILLER: Yeah.

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