Person of interest is a phrase used by US Attorney General John Ashcroft to describe the status of Dr Steven J Hatfill during the FBI's investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks. The legal meaning of the phrase is (as of November 2004) subject to a lawsuit. It is unclear how Ashcroft's November 2004 resignation might affect the liabilities, if any, established by the suit.

Dr Hatfill, who has lost his professional reputation and employment prospects as a consequence of being publicly identified, alleges that the Justice Department and the FBI used the phrase as an excuse to implicate him personally, without commencing legal proceedings, to divert media attention from their own failure to charge a suspect for the attacks.

Normal Justice Department parlance for subjects of investigation includes 'suspect', 'subject' and 'target'. Each has specific meanings relevant to different levels of investigation. Senator Chuck Grassley, (R-Iowa), wrote to the Attorney General for clarification of the unfamiliar phrase, in September 2002. In December of that year, NTI's Global Security Newswire summarized the response as follows:

the U.S. Justice Department has said that it did not intend for Hatfill to come under such intense media scrutiny by describing him has a “person of interest” in the anthrax investigation, according to department letters sent to Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), which were released yesterday. ... The department did not intend to cause any harm to Hatfill when it described him as a person of interest, Assistant Attorney General Daniel Bryant said in one of the letters.  Instead, the department meant “to deflect media scrutiny” and “explain that he (Hatfill) was just one of many scientists” who had cooperated with the FBI investigation, Bryant said.

Grassley said yesterday that he appreciates the department’s replies to his inquiries. “I also appreciate the department’s candidness that the action regarding Mr. Hatfill and his employment is unprecedented,” Grassley said in a statement, and that “there is no ... formal definition for the term ‘person of interest’” (Gugliotta/Lengel, Washington Post, Dec. 13).

see also

• Commentary by Ed Lake
• Richard Jewel
• Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI)'s Global Security Newswire piece in full