WASHINGTON — Before killing himself last week, Army scientist Bruce Ivins told friends that government agents had stalked him and his family for months, offered his son $2.5 million to rat him out and tried to turn his hospitalized daughter against him with photographs of dead anthrax victims.
The pressure on Ivins was extreme, a high-risk strategy that has failed the FBI before. The government was determined to find the villain in the 2001 anthrax attacks. The last thing the FBI needed, however, was another embarrassment.
Overreaching damaged the FBI’s reputation in other high-profile investigations: the Centennial Olympic Park bombing probe that falsely accused Richard Jewell; the theft of nuclear secrets probe and botched prosecution of government scientist Wen Ho Lee; and, in this same anthrax probe, the smearing of an innocent man — Ivins’ colleague Steven Hatfill.
In the current case, Ivins complained privately that FBI agents offered his son, Andy, $2.5 million plus a sports car late last year if he would turn over evidence implicating his father in the anthrax attacks, according to a former U.S. scientist who described himself as a friend of Ivins.
Ivins also said the FBI confronted his daughter, Amanda, with photos of victims of the attacks and told her, “This is what your father did,” according to the scientist, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The scientist said Ivins was angered by the FBI’s actions, which he said included following Ivins’ family on shopping trips.
Attorney Barry Coburn, who represents Amanda Ivins, declined to comment. An attorney for Andy Ivins also wouldn’t comment. The FBI declined to describe its investigative techniques of Ivins.
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