NewsMax.com
Friday, May 18, 2001

Lead FBI investigator Danny Defenbaugh said the bureau had an idea that something was wrong as early as January, according to the summary of a briefing he gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Associated Press reported.

At the root of the controversy is why the FBI disclosed just a week before Timothy McVeigh's scheduled execution that it had failed to turn over more than 3,000 investigative records.

FBI field offices were told in late December to send all investigative materials to Oklahoma City to be archived. Defenbaugh told lawmakers that archivists discovered one document that had not been released to McVeigh's lawyers as required, according to the summary.

By early February, more items began to arrive that had not been turned over. Over the next several weeks, many other items were discovered.

Asked why he waited until May to notify superiors, Defenbaugh said he wanted to ascertain the problem and its extent, the summary says.

Look Who's Miffed

Defenbaugh seemed to take offense at the question, a source familiar with the conversation told AP. "He was affronted."

Saying the FBI's main computer system was unreliable, Defenbaugh stated that he chose in 1995 to enter all the bombing documents into a separate database in Oklahoma. As it turns out, 254 of the items never turned over to McVeigh's attorneys actually had been entered in the FBI's computer system.

Defenbaugh admitted to lawmakers that he should have checked the FBI computer system for any documents, according to the memo. The Justice Department delayed McVeigh's execution, originally set for May 16, until June 11 after the FBI revealed that investigative records had "accidentally" not been given to McVeigh's lawyers.

McVeigh's attorneys are examining the documents to see if there is a basis to challenge his conviction. The 1995 blast killed 168 people and injured hundreds of others.

Thursday's revelation is yet the latest black eye for the FBI. Other scandals include espionage accusations against agent Robert Hanssen, the revelation that the FBI suppressed information about a 1960s Alabama church bombing that killed four girls, charges that the agency fired on the Branch Davidians in Texas, accusations of a cover-up in the TWA Flight 800 case, the Vince Foster case, and more.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Domestic Terrorism
TWA 800
Waco

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