Daschle: Proof in anthrax case 'complete'

USA TODAY, August, 2008 by Kathy Kiely and Donna Leinwand

WASHINGTON -- Former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, whose Senate office received the first anthrax-tainted letter in 2001, says he is satisfied the FBI has found the culprit.

Daschle, a former Democratic senator from South Dakota, called the Justice Department's case against Bruce Ivins, an anthrax scientist at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., "complete and persuasive."

"I think the evidence is pretty compelling," he told a group of reporters at USA TODAY's Washington bureau.

Ivins, who worked in the government biodefense lab on an anthrax vaccine, died last month of an overdose of acetaminophen. His death was ruled a suicide.

The Justice Department says he carried out the attacks alone. Ivins' attorneys say he is innocent.

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