Jewell Receives Limited Apology From Reno Admission Of Wrongdoing Refers Only To Leaking Suspect’s Name
Attorney General Janet Reno offered Atlanta security guard Richard Jewell an apology Thursday but limited it to the leak of his name as a suspect in the bombing at last summer’s Olympics.
“I think we owe him an apology,” Reno told her weekly news conference. “I don’t think any apology is sufficient when somebody has gone through what Mr. Jewell has gone through. What I need to do is to make sure that we take steps to try to avoid something like that in the future.”
Reno was the first federal official to offer the word “apology,” but she quickly made clear that - like those federal officials who offered sympathy earlier - she was referring only to the leak and its effects.
Justice and FBI internal investigators told Congress this week they have given up trying to trace the leak to any one of the more than 500 federal, state and local law enforcement agents involved.
Jewell spent 88 days in the glare of publicity after he was named as a suspect in the bombing that killed one person and injured 111 others. Finally, last fall the Justice Department sent Jewell a letter clearing him. On Wednesday, Jewell asked Congress to investigate.
When asked if her remarks were the formal apology the government never gave Jewell in last fall’s letter, Reno replied, “Anytime a situation occurs where there is a leak and it subjects a person to such public focus, I’m sorry it happened.”
“I think that’s an apology,” she said, but added later that she has not written to Jewell nor considered writing to him.
Reno declined to expand her apology to cover the ruse that FBI agents used to get him to waive his right to counsel during questioning or for searching his home with what he has called insufficient basis. When asked about that conduct, Reno said: “What I’m concerned about is that he was the subject of such public attention. I don’t think that’s right. With respect to the other issues, the OPR report should speak for itself.”