The United States’ Justice Department and Steven Hatfill, a former Army scientist who became a “person of interest” and was linked to the anthrax attacks which occurred after the 9/11 attacks, have reached a multimillion-dollar settlement and ended a five-year legal saga.

In 2003, Hatfill filed suit against former Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Justice Department. The former Army bioweapons researcher claimed that his privacy was violated because his name was involved in the anthrax attacks. Hatfill blamed the defendants of releasing his name to the media in connection with the biological attacks carried out in the eastern United States in which five people were killed and 17 other suffered severe illness.

The Justice Department released a statement on Friday afternoon in which they said Steven Hatfill will receive a one-time payment of $2.825 million and, beginning 2009, a $150,000 annuity for 20 years, according to court papers. In all, Hatfill will get $5.82 million.

Hatfill’s lawyer criticized the government in his Friday-released statement. He said the U.S. government “failed us” by not catching the anthrax attackers and by trying to conceal their failure through “leaking gossip, speculation and misinformation.” The government did not admit wrongdoing.

Hatfill, who worked at the Army's biological-warfare research center at suburban Fort Detrick, Md., has constantly denied any involvement in the biological attacks which began in October 2001, when anthrax-laced letters were sent to the offices of Senators Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

Hatfill said the leaked information about his alleged involvement in the deadly attacks cost him his job as well as any chance of future employment. The scientist was subjected to 24-hour surveillance and was regarded as the main suspect in the United States’ first bioterrorism attack, which made him public enemy.

"If anybody in the country really knew what it was like to be Steven Hatfill for the past six years, nobody would trade places with him," said Mark A. Grannis, Hatfill’s lawyer.

Hatfill’s lawyers identified the officials through which the confidential information leaked: former U.S. attorney for Washington, Roscoe C. Howard Jr.; his former criminal division chief, Daniel S. Seikaly; and a former FBI spokesman, Edwin Cogswell. The three haven’t spoken publicly on the accusation.

However, despite the settlement, questions remained unanswered considering the fact that the Department of Justice wouldn’t pay anyone that kind of money unless they felt there was considerable exposure at trial.