Murder plot victim slams federal prosecutors
In a 16-page affidavit prosecutors suggested may have originated with her jailed husband, alleged murder plot target Cyndi Steele rails against a plea deal arranged with FBI informant Larry Fairfax and accuses the U.S. Attorney's Office of violating her rights as a victim.
The document, filed under seal but emailed to the Spokesm
an-Review by an associate of Steele's, can be read here.
In it, Steele calls for Fairfax to be charged with conspiracy to commit murder or attempted murder and says the FBI told her about murder plot co-conspirators who still have not been arrested. She claims the FBI knew of the 12-inch pipe bomb affixed to her SUV (pictured) before auto shop employees discovered it June 15 and says they allowed her to drive from Oregon to North Idaho knowing the device was on her car.
Steele says her fear over the bomb was fueled by death threats made against her family, including her children, "whenever my husband would take political positions on various issues," according to the affidavit. "Death threats occurred quite often when my husband was acting as a First Amendment defense lawyer protecting the individual's right to freedom of speech....Some of these death threats were made by persons affiliated with the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that has professed a strong dislike for my husband and some o
f his political positions."
The Anti-Defamation League did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Steele called for the plea hearing to be postponed, but U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill declined, noting she'd filed her request that morning despite knowing of the hearing for two weeks.
"I have to question either the motive or the sincerity of their request," Winmill said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Traci Whelan said the affidavit contains opinions and statements she believes aren't true. She said Cyndi Steele has made it clear she wants nothing to do with the U.S. Attorney's Office. She's been in contact with the office in two occasions - to retrieve her husband's computer and to retrieve silver she says Fairfax stole but investigators say was given to him as a partial payment in the murder-for-hire plot, Whelan said.
Fairfax's plea hearing was instead postponed because he was reluctant to admit that the bomb he attached to Cyndi Steele's car had the potential to explode.