Could a brother's quest in seeking answers to his sibling's mysterious death in a federal prison break open the gates to what the FBI knew about the Oklahoma City bombing prior to the tragic event?
The answer now lies in the hands of a federal judge who will rule if the FBI must hand over numerous unredacted documents that disclose various undercover agents and informants who had infiltrated a white supremacist organization tied to bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols before the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that took the lives of 168 adults and children.
Jesse Trentadue claims his brother was murdered in an isolation cell in Oklahoma City and the event was then made to look like a suicide. Kenneth Trentadue's bloody body was found hanging from bed sheets while he was being held on a parole violation out of California. Prison officials ruled the 44-year-old man's death a suicide, but his brother has maintained that he was killed as the result on an FBI interrogation gone awry — an interrogation connected to an investigation into those connected with the Oklahoma City bombing.
In an attempt to prove his theory, Trentadue filed two requests with the FBI 11 years ago under the Freedom of Information Act and has since been locked in a legal struggle with the FBI over the documents.
Trentadue received a breakthrough last May when U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball ordered the FBI to provide him with documents with the names of agents and informants blacked out. Trentadue has requested those documents with the names intact to help him in his investigation, but he says FBI officials have sandbagged his efforts at every turn.
In court Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlie Christensen argued that the FBI did its best to "reasonably" respond to Trentadue's FOIA request but added releasing the names of FBI agents, informants and people of interest connected to the bombing could put the lives of many people in danger. That danger, Christensen argued, far outweighs any public interest in the release of their names.
During the hearing, Trentadue presented to the court a copy of a document the FBI failed to produce in his request as proof of the agency's apparent lack of compliance. Trentadue said he had obtained the document from another source.
Christensen took issue with the attorney offering the document that is still listed "under seal" at the FBI, calling it "improper."
Trentadue said what the FBI is really afraid of is putting their informants and agents at risk of criminal and civil liability from the government and the families of victims in failing to act to prevent the bombing.
Kimball said he will issue a decision in writing as soon as he can.
Outside of court, Trentadue said he believes his brother was mistaken for a bank robbery suspect FBI agents were looking to question in connection with the bombing. He said Kenneth Trentadue, who had served time in the '80s for bank robbery in California, was picked up on a pending parole violation in California and, for some reason, transported to Oklahoma City. "Two days later, he was dead," Trentadue said.
In his investigation, Trentadue came across a bank robbery suspect that fit a similar description to his brother — down to the dragon tattoo on the arm. The man was allegedly connected to a white supremacist compound called Elohim City in Oklahoma that also had ties to McVeigh and Nichols. Trentadue theorizes FBI agents mistook his brother for this man.
About a year after his brother's death, Trentadue said the robbery suspect ended up in federal custody. That man also reportedly wound up hanging himself in his cell.
E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com