Florida state prosecutor Jeffrey Ashton says he had qualms about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s handling of the Ibragim Todashev affair, but still found justifiable the interrogation shooting of the Chechen street fighter in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings.
Others, including civil rights groups, remain unconvinced that the federal agency has told the whole story of how a valuable witness in a major terror probe ended up dead while being questioned.
In the Boston Herald, columnist Peter Gelzinis calls the 161-page Todashev report released Tuesday by Mr. Ashton a “whitewash.” He continues, “Once again the FBI waltzes away from a mess. No harm, no foul.”
After a 10-month wait during which the FBI blocked the release of a medical examiner’s report, the official summation of the May 22, 2013, shooting gave Americans their first inside look at how, and perhaps why, Mr. Todashev died. The summation, which has police (and only police) eyewitness accounts, includes both Ashton’s report and a separate Justice Department document.