Morning News fights subpoena for McVeigh confession documents

COLORADO–The Dallas Morning News in late June asked a judge to throw out a subpoena from Terry Nichols, co-defendant in the Oklahoma City bombing case, which demands that the newspaper disclose documents used for an article reporting that Timothy McVeigh confessed to the bombing.

U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch did not rule immediately on the newspaper’s request to dismiss the subpoena. Morning News attorney Rachel Boehm told the Associated Press that the defense is probably looking for “some nugget of information not published in the March 1, 1997, article that will help exonerate Nichols in the Oklahoma City bombing.” The April 1995 bombing killed 168 people and injured over 500.

The documents in question have been the source of controversy since the article first ran in early March. Defense attorneys allege that the newspaper’s reporters stole the documents from their files. Reporter Pete Slover, who wrote the article and is also an attorney, told the Associated Press it was based on confidential documents from McVeigh’s interviews with a defense staff member.

Slover reported that the documents included statements by McVeigh that he had driven a truck with explosives. McVeigh reportedly said in a conversation transcribed in one document, “We needed a body count to make our point.” Other statements purportedly implicated Nichols in a November 1994 bank robbery that is alleged to have provided funds for the bombing. (U.S. v. Nichols; Media Counsel: Rachel Boehm, Dallas)