Ashcroft faults McVeigh case

Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft wrote in a new book that federal prosecutors "botched" bomber Timothy McVeigh's case and that James Nichols was recruited to help in the 1995 Oklahoma City attack.

"Never Again: Securing America and Restoring Justice" goes on sale today.

Ashcroft delayed McVeigh's 2001 execution almost a month when the FBI found documents during an archiving project that should have been turned over to the defense before the trial.

Ashcroft wrote about the execution in a 14-page chapter called, "The Botched Prosecution of Timothy McVeigh." He became attorney general in 2001, well after McVeigh's trial.

He criticized prosecutors, writing they were overly generous to the defense in the first place. He said prosecutors agreed to provide materials not normally given to criminal defendants, causing the later confusion.

"What the law requires is plenty good in American justice," he said Monday in a phone interview from New York. "When the Justice Department goes above and beyond what the law requires, we get ourselves in trouble. ... We significantly elevated the risks of disruption, which I think were unnecessary."

He also said the documents mistake was a lesson to him that the FBI needed reform.

Prosecutors scoffed at the criticism. They said they gave the defense "unprecedented discovery" because they wanted the public to be assured the government wasn't hiding anything, particularly since the case was one of the first high-profile ones after the controversial O.J. Simpson murder trial.

"It was a decision shared by every member of the prosecution team, including the attorney general at the time. ... Ashcroft's view is fine for day-to-day drug buys, but this was the criminal justice system on trial," former prosecutor Larry Mackey said.

Ashcroft wrote in the book that McVeigh recruited two friends, Terry Nichols and brother James Nichols, "to help him." Terry Nichols is serving life in prison for his role in the bombing. James Nichols was not prosecuted and denies involvement.

Ashcroft would not elaborate Monday.

"I'm going to leave it right there," he said.

James Nichols, reached in Michigan, laughed but declined comment. He sued filmmaker Michael Moore in 2003, complaining Moore "falsely accused him of being one of the perpetrators" of the bombing in Moore's controversial Academy Award-winning documentary "Bowling for Columbine."

Ashcroft revealed in the book that he didn't watch McVeigh's execution himself.

He met with victims in Oklahoma City before they watched the execution over a closed-circuit telecast.

"People just deserved to have the attorney general there," he said Monday. "There's a sea of emotion ... in a setting like that. ... Some I comforted with a hug, and some I comforted with an ear."

In the book, he wrote he supports the death penalty but "the sight of a person dying sickens me." He also wrote he skipped the execution because he didn't want anyone to get the impression the attorney general "took any macabre satisfaction in seeing a person put to death."

He also revealed authorities feared the execution would inspire other terrorists to act on an anniversary of McVeigh's death. He wrote that the government limited McVeigh's access to the media in the months before the execution to keep him from becoming a symbol.

"I don't know what percentage chance there might have been but our responsibility was to minimize it, whatever it was," he said Monday.

Ashcroft is scheduled to be at the new Wal-Mart Supercenter in Edmond at noon Oct. 11 for a book signing.

In the book, Ashcroft got wrong a few minor details. He wrote inaccurately, for instance, that a trooper stopped McVeigh after the bombing "on suspicion of speeding."