Killing the Messenger

OKC Bombing Grand Jury

Indicts Reporter Who Exposed Cover-Up.

Two years after the Oklahoma City bombing, after legal battles that reached the Oklahoma Supreme Court, a county grand jury was finally impaneled to reinvestigate this terrible tragedy. Twelve to fourteen people spent a year and-a-half interviewing over 117 witnesses, including investigative reporters such as myself, who stated that there were other conspirators involved in this heinous crime (not just "John Doe 2").

They heard expert testimony that the building could not possibly have been brought down by a fertilizer bomb parked in the street.

And they heard one of the ATF's own paid informants, who had infiltrated the white supremacist cell tied to McVeigh, state that she gave the ATF advanced warning of the bombing (and she wasn't the only one who had done so).

And after all this Ñ after deliberating for 18 months and [supposedly] reviewing a mountain of evidence, all the grand jury could see fit to do was return one indictment Ñ against me! (One of the jurors complained about being influenced, because I sent copies of my book, The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of Terror, to their homes. The DA alleges that I violated state law in doing so.)

But did I? In Oklahoma, the names and occupations of the grand jurors are printed in the newspaper. Not very secret. Furthermore, I went through proper legal channels by sending two certified letters, on two separate occasions, to the grand jury, requesting to be subpoenaed. I believe that DA Bob Macy, who "counseled" the grand jury, sat on those letters, preventing the jurors from receiving them. Furthermore, constitutionally, a citizen has the right, if not the duty, to bring allegations of criminal misconduct before any sitting grand jury, which is exactly what I did.

However, the judge presiding over the grand jury, Judge Burkette, had instructed the jurors not to look at any media reports, books, or magazine articles dealing with the bombing. By subpoenaing me, they essentially subpoenaed my book, and thereby violated their instructions. Legal theorists believe this could nullify any possible indictment against me.

Once I sent the books, I was finally subpoenaed. One of the first questions I was asked was if I was a member of a militia group! Mind you, this was a grand jury that was supposed to be investigating a mass-murder, not a reporter.

Still this is hardly surprising. As punishment for his courageous, civic-minded efforts, Rep. Key found himself harassed by local authorities and criticized by local newspapers. Even Judge Burkette himself stated when the grand jury was first impaneled that "the grand jury should rightfully indict Charles Key."

Obviously these are the people who have done the influencing. Bob Macy, the same DA who originally opposed Rep. Key's effort to impanel the grand jury (in several court battles), was subsequently put in charge of it!

Governor Frank Keating (a former FBI agent who personally infiltrated the New Left under the FBI's infamous COINTELPRO, and was Assistant Treasury Secretary under the Bush administration Ñ he oversaw the ATF when most of the guns and drugs were moving back and forth between the U.S. and Nicaragua), publicly stated that the people who impaneled this grand jury were "off the reservation" and "howling at the moon," and belittled anyone wishing to further investigate the case.

State Attorney General Drew Edmondson Ñ who dragged Rep. Key before a multi-county grand jury to examine his bombing investigation fundraising efforts Ñ claimed that further investigation would prevent the victims of the crime from experiencing a sense of "closure." Edmondson also circulated a letter to the media purporting to be from a majority of the bombing victims asking them "please don't O.J. us," in response to a piece by ABC 20/20 on the government's prior knowledge.

And finally, the "Justice" Department and FBI (Federal Bureau of Intimidation), which coerced, manipulated, and intimidated many witnesses into altering their testimony (and murdered at least one). ABC 20/20 was about to air a follow-up to their prior knowledge piece when they received a call from the "Justice" Department asking them not to run it. ABC backed down.

Obviously these are the people who influenced and coerced this grand jury (and ultimately, the entire case). These are the people who tampered with the legal process. These are the people who should be charged, or at the very least, should resign their posts in shame, for obstructing justice and lying to the American people.

Unfortunately this has become a political attack on me, because in fighting for the truth, I have become a thorn in their side. I am the only reporter to file a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FBI, for the surveillance tapes that would have captured all the suspects at the scene of the crime. And I am the only reporter who has filed an Open Records Act lawsuit against the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Department, for the Bomb Squad's crime scene logs, which would show that military grade explosives on the building's columns really brought that building down. (Assistant DA Cassandra Williams stated during our deposition of the Sheriff: "The crime scene logs cannot be located." Really?! For the largest crime in the history of the Sheriff's Department?! Also, don't we have a slight conflict of interest here folks? The DA who's supposed to be running an investigation into the bombing, defending a law-enforcement agency who is trying to *prevent* records from being discovered by a bombing investigator??)

As for DA Bob Macy (Williams' boss), he has put 53 people on death row, some of whom he knew to be innocent. As Ken Armstrong reported in the Chicago Tribune exactly one week after my indictment: "Bob Macy has lied. He has cheated. He has bullied. Even when a man's life is at stake, Macy has spurned the rules of a fair trial, concealing evidence, misrepresenting evidence, or launching into abusive, improper arguments that had nothing to do with the evidence, according to appellate rulings condemning his tactics." (Chicago Tribune, 1/10/99)

Now Macy is trying to prosecute an honest, civic-minded reporter for speaking the truth about a crime he was charged with investigating, but failed to do so due to his personal corruption and cowardice. Instead of using the grand jury to reinvestigate the bombing as he was charged, Macy used it as a political tool, to satisfy a personal vendetta against me (I called Macy a "two-faced liar" and a "coward" on Oklahoma television), and to further the cover-up of this heinous crime.

In my book, The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of Terror, I exposed these people as the liars and cowards they are, and exposed the cover-up that they were and still are perpetuating.

The Washington Times

January 11, 1999, Monday, Final Edition

SECTION: PART A; NATION; Pg. A8

HEADLINE: Conspiracy author named in indictment; Accused of Oklahoma City jury tampering

BYLINE: Valerie Richardson; THE WASHINGTON TIMES

DATELINE: DENVER

David Hoffman isn't a white supremacist, he's never mixed a fertilizer bomb and he's not particularly intent on overthrowing the federal government.

So when he was the only person to be named in a sealed indictment handed down Dec. 30 by a grand jury investigating the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, it raised a few questions. Why Mr. Hoffman and not, say, Andreas Strassmeir, or John Doe II, or other shadowy figures lurking on the fringes of the crime?

It turns out Mr. Hoffman, 38, was indicted on jury tampering. A journalist who wrote a book on conspiracy theories surrounding the case, Mr. Hoffman stands accused of sending copies of his book, along with cover letters, to the grand jurors in an attempt to influence the investigation's outcome.

His real crime, however, may be his knack for inflaming Oklahoma authorities and others close to the case with his stinging outbursts. He called Oklahoma County District Attorney Bob Macy a "two-faced coward" on local television, and says the members of the grand jury "have a collective IQ of 50."

What has Mr. Hoffman so outraged is the grand jury's conclusion that Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were solely responsible for the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 persons. Mr. Hoffman contends the jurors squandered what may be the last, best opportunity to address unanswered questions of the case by failing to pursue evidence suggesting a broader conspiracy.

"They're accusing me of coercing and manipulating the jury. They're the ones who coerced and manipulated the jury," Mr. Hoffman said in a telephone interview. "If anything, I've done the people of Oklahoma a great service."

Now in hiding somewhere in Colorado, Mr. Hoffman has until today to turn himself in to Oklahoma authorities or face a fugitive warrant for his arrest. In the interview, he said he planned to apply for political asylum in Colorado.

If that move fails, he said he would turn himself in, provided he can negotiate the terms of his surrender. He faces a maximum sentence of a year in jail on the misdemeanor charge, which he believes he will get because Mr. Macy "is out for blood," he says.

The publisher of the Haight Ashbury Free Press in San Francisco, Mr. Hoffman moved to Oklahoma three years ago to research his book, "The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of Terror." In it, he contends that the bombing was the result of a federal sting operation gone bad, and that McVeigh was merely a patsy set up to take the fall.

Mr. Hoffman contends the jury-tampering charge was motivated by the grand jury's need to produce an indictment after failing to bring any substantive charges in the case, and it's not hard to find Oklahomans who agree with him.

"They spent more time trying to discredit anything that conflicted with the FBI's theory than finding the truth," said V.Z. Lawton, a bombing victim who believes the conspiracy goes beyond McVeigh and Nichols. "Then they found some little thing they could pin on some guy and said, 'Look, we handed down an indictment.' "

The grand jury was impaneled 18 months ago after a petition drive and over the objections of Mr. Macy and state Attorney General Drew Edmondson. The jurors heard from 117 witnesses, but critics say the jury was steered away from information that suggested a wider conspiracy or federal involvement in the bombing.

"I testified for 3 1/2 hours, and the only thing they asked me about was the jury tampering," said Mr. Hoffman.

"My book's the most comprehensive study on the bombing out there, and the only thing they can ask me about is jury tampering?"

The Oklahoma City Bombing Investigation Committee, which forced the grand jury probe, also denounced the report. Committee founder Charles Key quipped that the only thing the final report lacked was an FBI signature at the

bottom.