As part of the settlement of a lawsuit filed by a former FBI lab employee against the Justice Department, more than 53,000 pages of information compiled in an investigation of the bureau's crime lab will be just a mouse click away.
Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller confirmed an Associated Press report that the provision was part of an agreement reached last week by the parties.
Government chemist Dr. Frederick Whitehurst's complaints of shoddy scientific practices in the FBI's Washington laboratory led to an exhaustive 1996 investigation by the agency's inspector general. The probe yielded a 517-page report filled with stories of incompetence in and inaccurate testimony by the lab's explosives and materials and analysis units.
Whitehurst, who had previously received a $1.16 million settlement from the FBI after claiming he had been retaliated against for voicing his concerns, was joined by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the organization's former spokesman, Jack King, in seeking to have the IG report and supporting documents released.
The newly forged pact requires that the Justice Department put all but three pages of documentation related to the investigation on the Internet and pay the plaintiffs $355,000 in legal fees. The information will be available within 90 days at www.usdoj.gov/oig.igspecr1.htm.
FBI officials insist that no one convicted using lab evidence or testimony would be freed based on the results of the IG investigation.
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