(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The transparency organization Judicial Watch has sued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for records about an ATF informant who warned the agency about a terrorist plot being planned in Oklahoma months before the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing.
The ATF informant in question is Carol Howe, who vanished in the late 1990s. In the remaining years of her life, she was reportedly living in Sparta, Tennessee under the name “Sarah Collins.” She died in a house fire on Jan. 6, 2025, according to documentarian Jon Ronson—though his reporting hasn’t been confirmed.
After Ronson reported Howe’s death, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the ATF in August 2025—seeking all investigative reports provided to the agency by Howe, as well as all related records entered into the ATF’s Confidential Informant Master Registry and Reporting System. The ATF acknowledged Judicial Watch’s request but didn’t respond further, and so Judicial Watch sued the agency on Friday.
@JudicialWatch has sued the ATF for records on Carol Howe, an informant who warned her handlers about a terrorist attack in Oklahoma just months before the OKC bombing.
Howe supposedly died in a house fire last year–though that hasn't been confirmed.
You can read about her… https://t.co/Wtk92bNgNV pic.twitter.com/PHHfMNZeZu— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) September 14, 2026
Who Was Carol Howe?
Howe was an informant that the ATF had embedded in a religious compound called Elohim City, where eventual OKC bomber Timothy McVeigh was known to have visited.
During her assignment for the ATF, Howe purportedly accompanied a white supremacist named Dennis Mahon and a German national named Andreas Strassmeir to Oklahoma City and Tulsa to case federal buildings for a planned terrorist attack. Howe said she warned her handlers about this in early 1995, only to be ignored. A few months later, the Oklahoma City bombing happened, killing at least 168 people, including 19 children.
After the bombing, Howe was sent back into Elohim City as part of the government’s investigation.
Somewhere along the line, she ran afoul with the ATF. Howe was arrested in 1997 for allegedly making bomb threats and having an explosive device at her home.
It was from Howe’s trial that many of her damning allegations about Elohim City’s connections to the OKC bombing came to light.
Howe’s allegations were corroborated by her former ATF handler, Angela Finley-Graham. The ATF agent testified that Howe had indeed warned the federal government that people from Elohim City had plans to attack federal buildings in early 1995.
“Ms. Howe told you about Mr. Strassmeir’s threats to blow up federal buildings, didn’t she?” said Howe’s attorney, Clark Brewster.
ATF agent Finley-Graham responded: “Yes.”
“And was this before the Oklahoma City bombing?” Brewster asked.
Again, agent Finley-Graham said, “Yes,” in response.
A jury exonerated Howe of all charges. The former informer went into hiding soon thereafter, never to make a public appearance again.
Now, Judicial Watch is attempting to unearth what exactly Howe told her handlers, and why her forewarnings about the OKC bombing were ignored.
“Americans have a right to know what the ATF knew about Carol Howe, what information she provided and how federal investigators handled it,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said Monday in a press release.
“These records could shed important light on the ATF’s confidential-source operation and the investigation surrounding the Oklahoma City bombing. The government should stop stonewalling and release the records.”
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
