Investigators learned that Dr. Ivins was alone late at night and on the weekend in the lab where RMR-1029 was stored in the days immediately preceding the dates on which the anthrax could have been mailed. Before the anthrax mailings, Dr. Ivins had never exhibited that pattern of working alone in the lab extensively during non-business hours, and he never did so after the anthrax attacks. When confronted, he was unable to give a legitimate explanation for keeping these unusual and, in the context of the investigation, suspicious hours.
As investigators reviewed Dr. Ivins’s voluminous e-mails, including e-mails during the time frame of the anthrax attacks, it became clear that he was suffering from significant psychological problems, which not only further concerned the investigators, but also contributed to their increasing scrutiny and monitoring of him. Investigators obtained authorization to place pen registers[1] on Dr. Ivins’s home and work telephones and e-mail accounts, and obtained consent to analyze his home computer hard drives. The Task Force examined his Internet searches and postings and reviewed his e-mail communications from both his personal and USAMRIID computer (with the approval of the Commander at USAMRIID). A GPS device was installed on his car, interviews with his associates were conducted, his trash was regularly searched, and confidential sources were used to gather further information.
By the fall of 2007, agents and prosecutors concluded that they had exhausted the results that could be obtained from using covert investigative tools. Increasingly persuaded that Dr. Ivins was involved in the anthrax attacks, agents obtained search warrants for his residence in Frederick, Maryland, his cars, and his office at USAMRIID, mindful that this would confirm for Dr. Ivins that he was a subject of the investigation. On November 1, 2007, the Task Force executed these search warrants, which resulted in the recovery of numerous items of interest, including a large collection of letters that Dr. Ivins had sent to members of Congress and the news media over the previous 20 years – including one sent to NBC News in 1987 at the same address for NBC used on the Brokaw letter. They also recovered three handguns, two stun guns, a taser, an electronic detection device, computer snooping software, and evidence that portions of the basement were being used as a firing range.
The link between the intended recipients of the seized letters and the recipients of the anthrax attack letters – members of Congress and the news media – was further evidence implicating Dr. Ivins in the anthrax attacks. Searches of his trash and e-mail accounts in the spring of 2008 produced additional evidence linking Dr. Ivins to the anthrax letters. Task Force agents and prosecutors also conducted three interviews with Dr. Ivins with his lawyers present: the first two were “on-the-record” interviews that took place in January and February 2008, and the last was an “off-the-record” debriefing that occurred in June 2008. On July 12, 2008, Task Force agents again searched the Ivins residence, based on new evidence that he had made specific
- ↑ A pen-register, along with a trap-and-trace, allows law enforcement to monitor which phone numbers are being dialed by a particular phone line, as well as which numbers are calling into that phone line. For e-mail accounts, it provides the e-mail accounts that are in communication with the target e-mail account.
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