HatFAIL

Talk about things ending not with a bang, but with a whimper:

The Justice Department announced Friday that it would pay $4.6 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Steven J. Hatfill, a former Army biodefense researcher intensively investigated as a “person of interest” in the deadly anthrax letters of 2001.

The settlement, consisting of $2.825 million in cash and an annuity paying Dr. Hatfill $150,000 a year for 20 years, brings to an end a five-year legal battle that had recently threatened a reporter with large fines for declining to name sources she said she did not recall.

While the Justice Department admitted no liability in the settlement, I'd say that a $4.6 million dollar settlement says everything we all need to know about liability.