Associated Press
Government admits leaks; girl dated Kaczynski twice
HELENA. Mont. (AP) — The government admitted Thursday that some of Its agents havo leaked confidential information about the Unabomber case, but argued that the was not significant enough to let suspect Theodore Kaczynski go free.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, a woman who worked with Kaczynski almost 20 years ago said Thursday that they dated only twice — and she rejected any suggestion that the abortive romance somehow sparked the Unabomber attacks.
Ellen Tarmichael also confirmed reports that after she broke off the relationship. Kaczynski harassed her by posting limericks about her at the packing material plant, prompting his younger brother. David Kaczynski, to Tire him on Aug. 23.1978.
“Further speculation that my limited involvement with Ted Kaczynski somehow resulted in the acts of terrorism attributed to him would be grossly unfair.” she said, adding that the first bomb from the Unabomber was sent “almost a month before I ever met Ted Kaczynski.”
Kaczynski, 53. was arrested April 3 at his Montana mountain cabin. He is jailed in Helena, charged only with possession of bomb components and not with any of the Unabomber attacks, which killed three people and injured 23 in nine states.
Kaczynski’s court-appointed lawyer. Michael Donahoe, claimed that a flood of leaks from unnamed federal sources has “poisoned the entire population of grand Juries within the United States against Mr. Kaczynski.”
Donahoe asked that Kaczynski be freed, the lone charge against him dropped and any further prosecution barred. He also asked that everything taken from Kaczynski’s Montana cabin be returned to his client.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bernard Hubley admitted in a written response that federal sources were responsible for some of the leaks, but he said the Justice Department has taken steps to plug them, including an investigation ordered Wednesday by FBI Director Louis Freeh.
Freeh also has threatened to fire and prosecute anyone caught revealing confidential information about the case. Hubley noted.
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said that much of the evidence seized from Kaczynski’s cabin appears to link him to the bombings. Those “deplorable disclosures” do not require Kaczynski be set free and given immunity from prosecution. Hubley said.
U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell said he would consider the requests at a hearing Friday.
Hubley said most of the information has come from nongovernment sources, such as former Justice Department employees who worked on the investigation. and Kaczynski’s family. The government can’t stop these people from talking, he said.
Also, many of the details were made public when a Judge made an inventory of the cabin search public. And besides, the leaks involved evidence that the grand jury will hear anyway, so the panel hasn’t been “poisoned,” he said.
In her first public comments on the case on Thursday. Tarmichael said she had dinner once with the man authorities now suspect of being the Unabomber, then went apple picking on a second date, returning to Kaczynski’s parents’ home in Lombard to bake an apple pie in 1978. Nearly two decades later, she said she could shed little light on Kaczynski or the bombings.
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Tarmichael, 47, was a manager at Foam Cutting Engineers Inc. in suburban Addison when she met Kaczynski, a press operator.
She said she and Kaczynski “didn’t have much in common besides our employment.” She said he took it calmly when she broke things off.