Dr. Steven Hatfill Sunday denied being involved in the Anthrax Plot.

Last June he agreed to let FBI agents search his home. They promised him it would be secret. Today he faced news cameras as he angrily denounced the investigation and the charges.

"Within minutes of my signing the release to have my residence and property searched, television cameras, satellite TV trucks, overhead helicopters, were all swarming around my apartment lot," he said.

The F.B.I.'s response? "The F.B.I. does not alert the news media to the service of search warrants."

Maybe they don't do media alerts as a matter of course, but did they do it this time? Or did they leak it to a non-media source knowing or not caring it would subsequently reach the media? Or was it a rogue agent who leaked on his own?

Whichever way you slice and dice it, the FBI has some major explaining to do.

We admire Hatfield's spunk, particularly when he said:

"I acknowledge the right of the authorities and the press to satisfy themselves as to whether I am the anthrax mailer. This does not, however, give them the right to smear me and gratuitously make a wasteland of my life in the process. I will not be railroaded."

This is eerily reminiscent of Richard Jewell. Hatfield has already lost his job. If he's exonerated, you can bet he'll sue for big bucks. And we doubt the FBI will be saved by cover-your-ass statements like Hatfield is a "person of interest," not a suspect.

Update: Tapped today reminds us of Laura Rozen's American Prospect article from June 27, "Who is Steven Hatfill?"