I think not.
I think they are a clerical malfeasance, of a mild sort, and more likely, Ivins did not do the overtime on those days.
I bet dollars to doughnuts Ivins had monthly or quarterly hour requirements for his job, that he missed a lot of days do to his troubles, and a helpful clerk entered bogus overtime to prop up his friend. Kind of like Hillary’s time records at her law firm.
Happens all the time. Since he was probably on salary, no overtime payouts would be a consequence. No money harm, no foul.
Dr. Ivins' place of work is under high security: Not only are people's times in the building recorded, but people's whereabouts as well. There is no way anyone entered bogus times for him.
It is not at all unusual for a scientist to spend extra hours at work, or to work odd hours, at night, on weekends, and holidays. Science is not a 9 to 5 endeavor. He could have been doing a time course experiment, where experimental manipulation or sampling has to be done at specific times, and that easily accounts for the same amount of overtime worked on 3 consecutive days.
Dr. Ivins was a friendly man, who would say hello whenever he saw me, at work or at the gym. He didn't behave in a manner that would set alarm bells ringing. The investigation, continuing long past the point when the FBI should have realized they weren't getting any new information, must have put him under a great deal of stress. How convenient, now that the stress led Dr. Ivins to tragically take his own life, to declare the case closed. It sure allows the FBI to save face, since they never did have a good lead on this one.
It sounds like Mr. Ivins had many friends at the lab.
It will probably take alot of courage to buck the FBI and write a book about all the ins and outs in that lab.
But I suspect someone who worked with him will eventually contradict the FBI’s case with their eyewitness testimony.
I’m beginning to wonder if they knew he was depressed and suicidal and intentionally drove him into the ditch.