Bombing Conspirator’s Statements Used to Bolster Deposition Request
A Salt Lake City lawyer claims the government does not want to turn over documents about the death of his brother in prison after questioning about the Oklahoma City bombing because the material could implicate the FBI in the bomb plot.
Lawyer Jesse Trentadue cites a new declaration by Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. The declaration says a lawyer claiming to be from the U.S. Department of Justice wanted Nichols to admit he alerted the FBI to the planned attack a day before it happened. Nichols said he never made such a call and refused to say anything different.
Trentadue believes his brother, Kenneth Trentadue, a convicted bank robber imprisoned for a parole violation, died during an interrogation by FBI agents who mistakenly believed he was a suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing. A federal appeals court has ordered the government to release documents in the case.
Now Jesse Trentadue wants a court to allow him to conduct videotaped depositions of Nichols and another death-row inmate who says he talked to bomber Timothy McVeigh while they were in prison together. U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball issued an order allowing the depositions in September, but the government is asking the judge to reconsider.
In an earlier declaration Nichols said the government was “apparently” directing McVeigh in a plot to blow up the buildings. The FBI has denied knowing about or plotting the bombing. It says Kenneth Trentadue’s death was a suicide.
