After May 6, 1995: FBI Records Belligerent, Incriminating Statements by Accused Oklahoma City Accomplice

Michael Fortier, a suspected participant in the Oklahoma City bombing conspiracy (see May-September 1993, February - July 1994, August 1994, September 13, 1994, October 21 or 22, 1994, and December 16, 1994 and After) whom the FBI believes has lied to investigators (see April 23 - May 6, 1995), unsuccessfully attempts to foil investigators by removing a cache of guns and drugs from his home. FBI personnel monitor the activities at the Fortier home, and place Fortier under court-authorized electronic surveillance of his telephone and inside his home. Soon after the wiretaps are placed, Fortier makes a number of belligerent statements to a friend, Lonnie Hubbard, in a phone call, saying if he is called to testify in any trial, he will pick his nose on camera and “flick it” at the lens. “Flick it and then kind of wipe it on the judge’s desk,” he says. He will also invite the lawyers to play a game of “pull my finger” during any such testimony, he says, between bouts of laughter. “I’m the key, I’m the key,” he tells Hubbard. “Cause you’re the key,” Hubbard replies. “The key man,” Fortier says. “That can unlock the whole mystery,” Hubbard says. “The head honcho.… I hold the key to it all.” To his brother John Fortier, he brags about the instant celebrity he will achieve, saying that he will concoct “some asinine story and get my friends to go in on it.… I found my career, ‘cause I can tell a fable.… I could tell stories all day.” To his friend Glynn Bringle, he says: “I want to wait till after the trial and do book and movie rights. I can just make up something juicy. Something that’s worth the Enquirer [a tabloid news publication], you know.” He speculates that he can sell photographs of McVeigh for $50,000, and make up to a million dollars by marketing his life story with McVeigh. “Make one cool mil,” he boasts. He tells some of his lies to a CNN reporter, in a segment that is broadcast nationwide (see May 8, 1995). Fortier’s parents, Paul and Irene Fortier, beg him to tell the truth to the federal investigators; Fortier later says the entire situation drove his father into “a nervous breakdown,” and admits lying to his father about his involvement. The FBI microphones record Fortier screaming at his mother, “Shut the f_ck up!” when she brings up the problems the family is suffering. [Serrano, 1998, pp. 240-243]