Pro-tyranny extremist criminals OKC cover-up
D. P. Roberts
Several rulings ‘watered down’ Howe accounts during Nichols trial
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By Jon Dougherty
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
The U.S. district judge who presided over both Oklahoma City bombing
trials never read a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
informant's file that could have provided jurors with important
information about others allegedly involved in the bombing of the
Alfred P. Murrah Building April 19, 1995.
According to a recently unsealed transcript of a closed-door session
between U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch, attorneys for the
Justice Department and attorneys for Terry Nichols, Matsch admitted
that he had received ATF informant Carol Howe's sensitive informant
file months earlier but never read it, in the waning days of Nichols'
trial in Denver, Colo.
The "In Chambers Conference" took place Dec. 8, 1997. Present were
Larry Mackey, Sean Connelly, Beth Wilkinson, Geoffrey Mearns, Jaime
Orenstein and Aitan Goelman on behalf of the Justice Department; also
present were Nichols' attorneys Michael Tigar, Ronald Woods, Adam
Thurschwell, Reid Neureiter and Jane Tigar, the document said.
WorldNetDaily was alerted to the existence of the transcript by The
McCurtain Daily Gazette newspaper.
Howe, a paid ATF informant, had reported to her handler, Special Agent
Angela Finley, that a plot to stage violence against the U.S.
government was being devised by members of a racist community called
Elohim City, in northeastern Oklahoma, months before the Murrah
attack.
The information was contained in Howe's ATF informant file, which was
kept secret by the agency and maintained by members of the Tulsa ATF
office. Every month, Tulsa agents would forward Howe's information to
ATF agents in Dallas.
After the Oklahoma City attack, Finley directed Howe to provide her
information to the FBI.
"In an April 21, 1995, interview with the FBI" – just two days after
the Murrah attack – "Howe stated that Dennis Mahon had talked to her
about targeting federal installations for destruction through
bombings, such as the IRS building, the Tulsa federal building and the
Oklahoma City federal building," the McCurtain paper said. "Howe also
told the investigators that Mahon, and a German military officer
living at the camp, Andreas Strassmeir, had taken three trips to
Oklahoma City to case the federal building prior to the blast that
destroyed it."
Howe's FBI interview took place in Oklahoma City. Finley never
disputed Howe's recollection of her eyewitness statements, and, in a
"lead sheet" provided to the bureau, even confirmed the veracity of
Howe's testimony.
Consequently, the FBI "had information from an ATF agent and a
confidential informant that persons at Elohim City were involved in a
very similar plan" just "48 hours after" the Murrah attack, the
newspaper said.
Howe's information was also substantiated by a number of audio and
video tapes made via court-authorized wiretaps, "body wires" and
hidden cameras carried and operated by Howe during her extensive
visits to Elohim City.
Those others she named as allegedly having been involved in the OKC
bombing, however, were never detained or questioned by the FBI or
other investigating agencies.
Ironically, however, the FBI eventually arrested Howe for making a
bomb threat within weeks after government prosecutors learned that
Stephen Jones, the lead attorney for Nichols' convicted (and recently
executed) co-conspirator, Timothy McVeigh, was planning to call Howe
to testify in his client's trial, held earlier in 1997. Matsch was
also the judge for McVeigh's trial.
After Howe's arrest, Matsch ruled her testimony "irrelevant" to
McVeigh's case and did not allow her to appear for the defense.
Later, after Howe was quickly acquitted by a jury during her trial in
Tulsa, the Nichols defense team, believing her credibility was
restored, tried to call her to appear on behalf of Nichols. Again,
however, Matsch intervened.
"The sensitive nature of what Carol Howe knew and how she came to know
it spilled out in the closed-door hearing that took place on the eve
of final arguments in the Nichols' trial," the McCurtain paper said.
During the closed-door session, Matsch admitted he had never read
Howe's file. According to the transcript:
THE COURT: …Then Carol Howe. That's a matter that we should discuss, I
guess. And we did find that the material that got sent over here under
seal from Judge Burrage was still here. I guess it wasn't designated
on the record on appeal. And I directed that it – you be given an
opportunity to look at that, and I think someone did.
MR. WOODS: Yes, your Honor. Mr. Thurschwell.
MR. THURSCHWELL: Thank you.
THE COURT: And Government counsel saw it earlier.
MR. MACKEY: Previously.
THE COURT: Now, what – does this mostly deal with the ATF records?
MR. THURSCHWELL: It's the ATF file, if I'm not mistaken.
THE COURT: I can't remember. I don't believe that I ever saw it,
actually. I just sort of handled the custody of it.
On the subject of what Howe specifically discussed with the ATF and
FBI, lawyers for Nichols tried to make the case that her testimony
would be relevant because of what she reportedly heard Elohim City
members say:
MR. THURSCHWELL: Your Honor, she says that Andreas Strassmeier spoke
about taking direct action against the federal government, including
assassinations and bombings. She says that there was a – Robert
Millar, who was the leader of the Elohim City community essentially
preached about – let me find my notes – about gaining territory,
expanding throughout the Midwest, and then speaks specifically about
these states I mentioned before. She would say that Robert Millar
traveled to Oklahoma City on a number of occasions during the
conspiracy period meeting with other people there.
THE COURT: How does she know that?
MR. THURSCHWELL: I think she actually traveled with him on at least
one of those occasions on January 29, 1995, and met with another –
what I gather is a right-wing church of some kind, which is the –
Elohim City is ostensibly a religious community, also.
Moments later during the session, Matsch began to openly question the
necessity of allowing Howe's testimony.
THE COURT: Well, isn't all this hearsay?
MR. THURSCHWELL: I don't believe so, your Honor.
THE COURT: Well, why isn't it?
MR. THURSCHWELL: She had a direct relationship with Mahon and I
believe was a member with him in these groups –
THE COURT: What she's testifying about is what these people said.
MR. TIGAR: Yes, your Honor; but it's not offered for the truth.
THE COURT: Well, what is it offered for?
MR. TIGAR: Well, it's offered to show that these sentiments are
expressed at that place at that time, which are "we intend to blow up
federal buildings, or we have certain express political beliefs."
THE COURT: Yes. And I have no problem with the generalized beliefs in
the manner that this Alliance – what is his name?
MR. MACKEY: Coffman.
THE COURT: Yeah – Coffman testified to. But when it gets down to
specific plans like this, then it's hearsay in my view because I don't
think that is offered for or can reasonably be contained as being an
expression of a state of mind. That's planning.
MR. TIGAR: Well, Rule 803(3) does say plan, design and so on, your
Honor.
THE COURT: Well, that's where I'm drawing the line.
MR. TIGAR: All right.
THE COURT: Because I don't think that it's, you know – I think this is
a 403 issue as well.
MR. TIGAR: Well, then is it your Honor's ruling she could testify
about the – her understanding of the political ideology or in the same
way that Mr. Coffman did, what Elohim City is about?
THE COURT: That, I think – I think that's admissible.
Matsch's ruling gave the Nichols team no room to maneuver, but did
allow government lawyers to paint Howe as a white supremacist and
racial extremist – which they did during her few minutes on the stand
at Nichols' trial.
Consequently, "as a result of Matsch's decision, lawyers for Terry
Nichols would not be able to open up Howe's informant file and
establish for the jury that she had been recruited by the government
after being exposed to the 'White Power Movement,'" the McCurtain
Daily Gazette said.
Also, jurors would not be able to see a copy of the contract Howe
signed with the federal government to become an informant – "a
contract the ATF entered into with her only after she passed a
polygraph examination, establishing her truthfulness and loyalty to
the government," the paper said.
Matsch's parameters also would not allow jurors to see the more than
200 pages of statements, testimony and handwritten notes Howe supplied
the ATF, outlining the Elohim City group's intentions.
Nichols was eventually found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
However, he has appealed his conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court, and
has asked the government to respond to recent revelations that the FBI
withheld evidence in the case that there were others involved in the
plot.
In Oklahoma City, prosecutors there say they intend bringing Nichols
to trial on state murder charges, the paper said. Prosecutors and
defense lawyers in the state case have also complained the FBI has not
given up all the evidence they have.