Press reports Friday say the department intends to distribute to federal investigators looking into the 2001 anthrax case documents they can sign releasing journalists from pledges of confidentiality.

The subject of the federal inquiry, former Army bioterrorism expert Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, 50, wanted the releases so his lawyers could talk to reporters about their sources.

Hatfill, who has been identified as a "person of interest" in the case by the FBI but has vehemently denied any guilt, says a number of news sources, including the New York Times and Vanity Fair magazine, have published erroneous stories that he says implicates him in the anthrax case.

He is suing both publications, as well as the FBI and Justice Department. He says as a "person of interest," he was tailed by FBI surveillance teams for months and, as a result of his guilt by association, he's been unemployable.

The Times said the documents would have a two-fold affect.

First, they could cause fewer government officials and employees to provide information to reporters. Secondly, it would lead to eventual identification and probable punishment of any government employee found to have provided information – thought to be in confidence – to a reporter.

In the end, say critics of the department's tactic, less information about suspect government and official corruption and wrongdoing will be made public. That, they say, is anathema to the intent of maintaining a free press, not to mention the fact that it could eventually lead some in government to commit more corruption, knowing fellow employees and underlings will be too intimidated to talk to the press about it.

"The ultimate result of this will be that in the future, less information will get to the public," Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told the Times.

A Hatfill lawyer, Mark A. Grannis of Washington, says: "All that's affected by the waiver is a private promise of confidentiality. We want that waived precisely so that we don't have to depose investigators but can get the information from reporters."

Meanwhile, USA Today reports that Hatfill's attorneys cannot question scientists queried by the FBI in the case because the investigation is at "a critical stage," according to U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton.

The judge said if details about the ongoing inquiry were made public, they could provide clues to the anthrax killer about the direction and progress of the investigation.

"I hope Dr. Hatfill didn't do this. I don't know if he did. I don't think anybody knows,” Walton said in court, according to USA Today. "There are some very unique things the government is doing at this time. If ... this were to be known to the perpetrator, it could have an adverse impact on the investigation.”

In the 2001 attacks, five people died, 17 were sickened, and thousands of people were forced to take high-powered antibiotics after anthrax-tainted letters were mailed to a few news outlets and a pair of U.S. senators.

Walton gave federal officials and investigators until April 22 to solve the anthrax case. If they don't, he indicated he will likely allow Hatfill's suit to move ahead.

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