John Ashcroft et al. Walton has been presiding over the lawsuit that Steven Hatfill filed against former US Attorney General John Ashcroft. Ashcroft publicly described Hatfill as a "Person of interest" in the FBI's investigations into the 2001 anthrax attacks. On March 30, 2007, Walton issued an order warning Hatfill that he may lose his civil lawsuit over the leaks if he does not compel journalists to name their sources and giving Hatfill until April 16, 2007, to decide whether to do so. Hatfill's lawyers have complied with the order, as reported on April 18 by Gerstein, who warns that a "free press battle looms," as The reporters in jeopardy now are expected to defy Hatfill's subpoenas and any court order to name their sources. ... one critical issue will be whether Judge Walton imposes fines on the news organizations involved. ... A First Amendment battle could possibly be avoided: The government and Dr. Hatfill's lawyers asked Walton to name a mediator to explore a possible settlement of the case. ... No one has been charged in the anthrax attacks, which killed at least five people. Guantanamo captives' habeas petitions On August 21, 2009, Reuters reported that Walton issued a ruling about "hearsay evidence" that applied to all the Guantanamo detainees' habeas petitions before him. Much of the evidence the Department of Justice is presenting in the habeas petitions is hearsay evidence. Walton wrote: Mueller Report redactions On Monday, August 5, 2019, Politico reported that while hearing arguments regarding lawsuits by BuzzFeed and the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center, as they seek to reveal the approximately 1,000 redacted items in the publicly-released edition of former special counsel Robert Mueller's report, Walton indicated that he would review the redactions before determining whether to grant making them public. On Thursday, March 5, 2020, Walton described Attorney General William Barr's public statements about the Mueller report as "misleading", and said that Barr's representations regarding DoJ redactions from the report could not be credited. He directed the Department to submit the unredacted version of the Mueller Report to the Court for in camera review. On October 6, 2020 President Trump, referencing the Mueller report, tweeted "I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax”. In response to the President's statement, BuzzFeed requested an unredacted versions of the report;