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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

FBI scales back agents on murder investigation

Associated Press The Spokesman-Review

SEATTLE – FBI officials in Washington, D.C., are reviewing the decision by the agency’s Seattle office to cut the number of agents investigating the 2001 shooting death of federal prosecutor Tom Wales, according to a published report.

Citing unidentified sources, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Saturday that the FBI’s Seattle branch, which has about 140 agents, had taken two agents off the investigation. That would leave two others to handle the case, along with a Seattle police detective who’s assigned full time to the task force.

On Tuesday, the Seattle Times, also citing unidentified sources, reported that Steven Clymer, a Cornell University law professor and the special prosecutor overseeing the case, had appealed the decision to FBI headquarters.

One of the Times’ sources said Laura Laughlin, special agent in charge of the Seattle FBI office, who made the decision, didn’t consult Clymer.

Laughlin declined to be interviewed by the Times and did not return the P-I’s calls seeking comment from FBI officials. A message the Associated Press left with her secretary Tuesday was not immediately returned.

FBI officials could let Laughlin’s decision stand, order it reversed, or restore the full task force and place it directly under Clymer’s control, the Times reported.

FBI officials declined to comment to the Times. Ann Todd, a special agent in the FBI’s national press office, declined to comment to the Associated Press on Tuesday.

Clymer has declined to confirm the reassignments or talk about what it might mean about the direction the bureau is taking.

Clymer was appointed after the U.S. attorney’s office in Seattle, where Wales had worked for 18 years, recused itself from the case.

The Times and P-I reported that Laughlin’s decision included the removal of lead agent Ron Bone, an FBI veteran who has devoted hundreds of hours to the investigation.

U.S. Attorney John McKay told the P-I he has confidence the Seattle FBI can handle the investigation, but suggested he was not happy with the decision. “I communicated my concern about staffing of the Wales investigation to the S.A.C.,” he told the P-I, referring to the special agent in charge.

The decision came shortly after the Seattle FBI office received an anonymous letter written by a person claiming responsibility for killing Wales. The letter was mailed from Las Vegas in January, around the time a Bellevue pilot who has been investigated in the killing had visited that city, the Times reported.

The letter was written by someone claiming he was hired to kill Wales, but contained what the FBI described as misleading information meant to throw off investigators.

Wales, 49, an assistant U.S. attorney who mostly handled white-collar crimes, was shot the night of Oct. 11, 2001, while sitting at his computer in his Queen Anne neighborhood home. He was hit by several shots fired from his backyard.

If killed because of his work, Wales would be the first federal prosecutor in U.S. history to be slain in the line of duty.

Mark Bartlett, first assistant U.S. attorney in Seattle, declined comment on the FBI’s decision but told the Times: “My understanding in talking to members of the squad that is working the investigation is that they have a number of promising leads and they remain optimistic about solving the case.”