Lawyer: Supremacist Encoded Notes

An attorney for a jailed white supremacist who has been a focus of the investigation into the shooting deaths of a federal judge's husband and mother has said he was asked to give an encoded message to one of the white supremacist's supporters.

Lawyer Glenn Greenwald told The New York Times in Wednesday's editions that a few months ago Matthew Hale's mother asked him to pass the message to a Hale supporter.

"She said she didn't know what the message meant, but she was going to read it to me verbatim because Matt made her write it down when she visited him," Greenwald told the newspaper. "It was two or three sentences that were very cryptic and impossible to understand in terms of what they were intended to convey."

U.S. Judge District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow found her 64-year-old husband, Michael Lefkow, and 89-year-old mother, Donna Humphrey, shot to death in the basement of her Chicago home when she returned from work on Feb. 28.

Though authorities have said white supremacists are just one avenue of the investigation, Hale and other white supremacists immediately drew investigators' attention.

The FBI has labeled the investigation "highest possible priority," and authorities say they have received more than 600 tips so far, reports CBS News Correspondent Cynthia Bowers.

Hale, 33, is to be sentenced next month for soliciting an FBI informant to kill Judge Lefkow after she ordered him to stop using the name World Church of the Creator for his group over a trademark lawsuit.

Greenwald, who has represented Hale and his organization in several civil cases, said he told federal agents last week about the conversation he had with Hale's mother, Evelyn Hutcheson.

He said he did not recall the exact message or the person it was to be given to, but he said he declined to deliver it. Greenwald has said he does not believe Hale had anything to do with the killings of Judge Lefkow's mother and husband.

Hutcheson told The New York Times that the message was about someone her son thought should testify at his April 6 sentencing. She said any coding was meant to keep federal agents from figuring out Hale's legal strategy.

During the investigation into the deaths of Judge Lefkow's mother and husband, federal agents have questioned Hale, according to his parents, as well as his mother and other relatives. Hutcheson has said federal agents have asked her if Hale communicated with her in code.

Hutcheson and her ex-husband, Russell Hale, said Tuesday authorities told them they can no longer visit or talk with their son, who is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago.

His parents have speculated that authorities might be upset over a statement Hale released through his mother last week. Hale's mother has said she doesn't believe any suspicion about a code prompted federal authorities to call off the visits and phone calls.

Meanwhile, investigators have gathered several pieces of evidence from Lefkow's North Side Chicago home and neighborhood, including a broken window with a fingerprint and a cigarette butt found in a sink.

A source close to the investigation told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that DNA found on the cigarette does not match any known criminal profile in the United States or any member of the Lefkow family.

Investigators also have not been able to find a match for the fingerprint found on the broken window, the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times reported, citing unnamed sources, in Wednesday's editions.

Unnamed sources also told the newspapers that two .22-caliber shell casings found in the house have been processed and tests show the bullets were fired from a single weapon. No usable fingerprints were collected on the casings, the newspapers reported.

Another source familiar with the investigation told the AP on condition of anonymity that Chicago detectives and FBI agents also have gone to the law office of Michael Lefkow and have spent hours examining his files in search of leads.