Washington – Not long after newspaper columnist Jack Anderson’s funeral, FBI agents called his widow to say they wanted to search his papers. They were looking for confidential government information he might have acquired in a half-century of investigative reporting.
The agents expressed interest in documents that would aid the government’s case against two former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, who have been charged with disclosing classified information, said Kevin Anderson, the columnist’s son.
In addition, the agents told the family they planned to remove from the columnist’s archive – which has yet to be catalogued – any document they came across that was stamped “secret” or “confidential.”
“He would be rolling over in his grave to think that the FBI was going to go crawling through his papers willy-nilly,” Kevin Anderson told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
His account is similar to conversations described by Mark Feldstein, a George Washington University journalism professor and Anderson biographer. Feldstein said he was visited by two agents at his Washington-area home in March.
“They flashed their badges and said they needed access to the papers,” said Feldstein, a former investigative reporter.
Jack Anderson donated his papers to the university, but the family has not yet formally signed them over.
The FBI did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
The story was first reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Anderson died in December at age 83 after a career in which he broke several big scandals and earned a place on President Nixon’s “enemies list.” Authorities on several occasions tried to find the source of leaked information that became a staple of his syndicated column.
Given his history, Anderson’s family already might have been skeptical when the FBI came calling.
The timing only deepened suspicion. The AIPAC investigation dates back five years.
The Andersons decided not to cooperate, and their lawyers are preparing a letter to the FBI, Kevin Anderson said.
“We don’t think there’s anything related to the current investigation there, based on the time frame and dad’s poor health,” he said. “They made it clear they want to look at everything, and by the way, if we find anything classified, we’ll have to remove it. I suspect that’s their real intention, to get through these papers before they become public.”
