U.S. Settles With Scientist Named in Anthrax Cases

Earlier this year, Walton held former USA Today reporter Toni Locy in contempt of court for refusing to reveal her sources. Locy, who previously worked at The Post, appealed the ruling. Yesterday afternoon, Hatfill's attorneys notified the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in writing that the scientist no longer needs Locy's testimony, which "may or may not make the appeal moot."

Locy, soon to be a journalism professor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., did not return e-mail messages. Her attorney declined to comment.

Last year, a federal judge in Alexandria threw out a related lawsuit by Hatfill against the New York Times over columns by Nicholas D. Kristof. Hatfill has appealed. Abbe Serphos, a spokeswoman for the Times, declined to comment yesterday.

The October 2001 anthrax mailings, sent to then-Sen. Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), network television offices in New York and the company that owns National Enquirer, gripped the nation and disrupted correspondence. In addition to the two D.C. postal workers, a Florida photographer, a New York hospital worker and an elderly Connecticut woman died after being exposed to the powder.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the investigation of the anthrax attacks continues.

"This investigation remains among the department's highest law enforcement priorities," he said. At one point, as many as 35 FBI agents and 15 Postal Inspection Service agents were involved in the probe, which led to interviews of witnesses as far away as Kabul, Afghanistan. No arrests have been made.

Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.) sharply criticized the FBI yesterday for what he called failures in evidence collection and for developing a faulty theory in the case. Holt said he would invite FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III to appear before the intelligence oversight panel of the House Appropriations Committee to explain the status of the investigation.

"This case was botched from the very beginning," the lawmaker said.