Follow-Up on Open Letter to Judge Edgar

Week of Oct. 15, 2001

After last week's Open Letter to Judge Edgar where I noted that I did not get a response from U.S. Attorney Guy Blackwell after several calls over three months and several more the past two days, well -- you guessed it -- I got a phone call from Guy Blackwell.

He told me he hadn't seen the letter yet but was answering my call. Regarding the past few months, he said he didn't call me back because he wasn't going to comment on a case that was under seal. Regarding the comment he made in federal court that "this is it. This is all the United States is aware of," he said that the paper didn't capture the full context of the statement. He said, in context, what he presented to the court was all there was in terms of "what could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt."