Trying To Get Muckrakers Papers, Did FBI Trick Widow?
This morning’s newspapers are ablaze with the outrageous news that the FBI was trying to get its hands on over 200 boxes of files once belonging to legendary investigative journalist Jack Anderson. What the papers didn’t report was the truly ugly extent to which the bureau has gone to achieve their goal — such as manipulating Anderson’s elderly widow to sign a document she apparently didn’t understand. I spoke with Jack Anderson’s son Kevin yesterday. He’s an attorney, and acts as the family’s representative with the FBI. He told me that the lead agent in this case, Leslie Martell, went behind his and his siblings’ backs to get his elderly mother, Olivia, to sign a form that would allow FBI agents to review and remove documents from her husband’s files. Agent Martell and her partner came twice to meet with Olivia Anderson; on both occasions, Olivia’s daughter was present, although she was in and out of the meeting, caring for her children. Through Kevin, his sister says that at no tim
