Sister Says Mcveigh Linked To Bank Robbery

Timothy McVeigh’s sister told FBI agents he once gave her $300 he said he got from a bank robbery and asked her to exchange it for clean money, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

She said their transaction was in December 1994, a time when prosecutors have said McVeigh and co-defendant Terry Nichols were financing a plot to bomb the Oklahoma City federal building.

Jennifer McVeigh said in the sworn statement to federal agents that her brother told her he helped plan, but did not participate in, the robbery, the McCurtain Daily Gazette reported.

Defense attorney Stephen Jones said there is no evidence “from any source that Tim McVeigh was ever involved in a bank robbery.”

Jones said McVeigh’s sister apparently misunderstood a joke, and her brother was being facetious when he said the money came from a robbery.

Jones said her statement was probably leaked by someone in federal government bent on distracting attention from problems with the FBI’s crime lab in Washington.

The agency has removed three senior FBI agents who evaluated evidence in the bombing case, as well as an FBI whistleblower, from its crime lab while it evaluates a Justice Department report critical of the lab’s work.

Federal prosecutors have decided against calling one of the investigators as an expert witness when McVeigh goes on trial in March. Nichols will be tried later.