Writer To Face Charges Of Tampering With Oklahoma City Bombing Grand Jury

Writer To Face Charges Of Tampering With Oklahoma City Bombing Grand Jury

By TIM TALLEY

OKLAHOMA CITY (January 19, 1999 9:48 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Asserting he is being persecuted for "speaking the truth," a writer who has advanced conspiracy theories about the Oklahoma bombing surrendered Tuesday to face charges he tried to influence a grand jury investigating the blast.

David Hoffman, 38, reported to the Oklahoma County Jail, three weeks after being indicted by the grand jury on two misdemeanor counts of attempting to influence a juror. He was released from jail Tuesday afternoon. If convicted, he could get two years in prison.

Hoffman, who runs an alternative San Francisco newspaper, the Haight-Ashbury Free Press, and wrote "The Oklahoma City Bombing and The Politics of Terror," is accused of sending a copy of his book and a note to an alternate member of the grand jury.

Among other things, the note says, "do not let them tell you what to do, and do not take your cues from them. It you do, you will be making a grave mistake, and shortchanging the people of this nation," according to an affidavit.

Hoffman says he didn't try to contact grand jurors directly and accused Oklahoma County District Attorney Bob Macy of persecuting him.

Macy "has put 53 people on death row, some of whom he knew to be innocent," Hoffman said as he was taken inside the jail. "Now he's trying to prosecute a lowly reporter for speaking the truth about a crime he was charged to investigate but failed to do so."

The April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building killed 168 people. Hoffman has claimed that the government was involved in the attack or knew about it advance.

The grand jury met for 18 months. In its final report last month, it dismissed allegations of a larger conspiracy or a government cover-up.

Hoffman called the grand jury investigation "the biggest government cover-up since the Kennedy assassination."