When the FBI searched Hatfill's apartment a second time, on Aug. 1, 2002, the media helicopters and the van loads of camera crews were there again.
"Obviously, someone told them we were going to do that search," Garrett testified.
Roth, who was with Garrett for both searches, said the tip-offs were "just ridiculous."
At one point, Roth and other FBI officials tried to trace who was accessing the central computer file in which all investigative interviews and other developments were stored. Roth said the file was "an open book," used by "a huge group of people."
Someone had leaked the information that the second search of Hatfill's apartment was made with the authority of a court-issued warrant, which wrongly implied that Hatfill was no longer cooperating.
Mueller resisted when an official recommended a criminal probe of the leaks, with mandatory lie-detector tests for the anthrax investigators, Roth testified. The FBI director, Roth said, raised a hand and said, "I don't want to do that. . . . It's bad for morale to go after these people."
Mueller testified that he did not recall the episode. He said he had backed at least one other leak investigation but did not know if any action was taken.
No charge, but a label
On Aug. 6, 2002, five days after the second, widely televised, search of Hatfill's apartment, Ashcroft appeared on two network morning programs. On CBS' "The Early Show," the attorney general was asked, "Is Dr. Hatfill a suspect?"
Ashcroft replied, "Well, he's a person of interest."
Hatfill had not been charged with a crime. But he had a label -- a label that officials used repeatedly. Ashcroft later testified that he did not think it "would cause [Hatfill] stigmatization."
Others at the FBI were concerned. Harp testified that he had viewed labeling Hatfill as "improper." Harp kept his misgivings private, but a newly assigned colleague spoke out.
Michael A. Mason, then the FBI's executive assistant director, told reporters that, without sufficient evidence to charge someone with a crime, "there is absolutely zero value to coming forward with names or definitions of persons of interest."
Afterward, FBI Deputy Director Bruce J. Gebhardt privately rebuked Mason. Gebhardt said the remarks "did not go over well in the front office," according to testimony from another senior bureau official.
