The biowarfare expert singled out by authorities in the anthrax probe declared his innocence yesterday and lashed out at officials for targeting him.
“I want to look my fellow Americans directly in the eye and declare to them, ‘I am not the anthrax killer,’ ” said Dr. Stephen Hatfill, speaking to reporters for the second time in two weeks, outside his lawyer’s office in Alexandria, Va.
“I know nothing about the anthrax attacks,” he said. “I had absolutely nothing to do with this horrible crime.”
Hatfill criticized Attorney General John Ashcroft, who has called him “a person of interest to the Department of Justice” in relation to the investigation of last fall’s anthrax attacks, which killed five people.
“This assassination of my character appears to be part of a governmental effort to show the American people that it is proceeding vigorously and successfully with the anthrax investigation,” Hatfill said.
He said his lawyers have filed an ethics complaint against Ashcroft.
Hatfill, 48, said he plans to give the FBI blood and writing samples in an effort to clear himself.
He came under FBI scrutiny in the anthrax probe because he had worked at the Army Medical Research Institute at Fort Detrick, Md., which was once home to the U.S. biological-warfare program and a repository for the Ames strain of anthrax used in the attacks.
Authorities have said Hatfill is one of 30 people they are looking at in connection with the attacks.
Hatfill previously spoke out about his innocence on Aug. 11. A day later, a federal official said the FBI was not ready to clear him, even though investigators have no physical evidence linking him to the attacks.
Probers have searched his Frederick, Md., apartment twice and tested for anthrax residue. They have also searched his car, a storage unit in Florida and his girlfriend’s home.
With Post Wire Services