A federal court released yesterday almost 100 documents that it used to mistakenly connect scientist Steven J. Hatfill to the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people

The papers unsealed by the Justice Department disclosed details about the early suspicions that made the Federal Bureau of Investigation incorrectly pursue Dr. Halfill in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

The federal investigation on Hatfill lasted several years. In June, the man received a $5.8-million settlement from the FBI and the Justice Department for violating his privacy rights. Two months later, the government exonerated him from any involvement in the anthrax-laced letters.

Hatfill was exonerated after the FBI and the Justice Department agreed that Bruce Ivins, another government scientist, was responsible for the anthrax mailings. But Ivins committed suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to charge him for the attacks, which killed 5 people and sickened 17 others.

In the public search warrant affidavits, the FBI cited several innocent details that made him a person of interest in the investigation, said Mark A. Grannis, a lawyer for Dr. Hatfill. These details include his work at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, his work as a bioterrorism consultant, as well as the late hours he spent in the laboratory before the 2001 mailings. In addition, there were cited two prescriptions the man had filled for the antibiotic Cipro, the most used drug for treatment of anthrax, just two days before each of the anthrax letters were postmarked in September and October 2001.

"Search warrant affidavits are designed to raise suspicion — that is their express purpose," Thomas G. Connolly, Hatfill’s lead attorney, said in a statement. "Our repeated experience has been that people make wild accusations in secret, only to retract them under public questioning.”