Agents were trying to determine the credibility of the tip from a former Spokane motel manager, who says Chevie Kehoe showed up at the business about 45 minutes before the 1995 Oklahoma blast and wanted to watch CNN, spokesman Ray Lauer said Friday from the FBI's regional office in Seattle.
``If he did know about it or participated in the gathering of materials or the planning of that event, that makes him a co-conspirator,'' Lauer said of Kehoe, a Colville resident, about 60 miles north of Spokane.
``That certainly would be our main point of interest in investigating this.''
The manager also told authorities Kehoe arranged to have a man stay at The Shadows Motel & RV Park a few months before the Oklahoma City bombing - a man who closely resembled Timothy McVeigh, who has been convicted in the blast.
``It's a little premature to judge the credibility of these stories,'' Lauer said.
FBI agents this week interviewed the man, whom Lauer wouldn't identify, and were trying to contact others who may be able to confirm the claims.
Findings will be presented to the FBI task force investigating the Oklahoma City case, Lauer said.
Kehoe faces trial in Clinton County on charges filed in a 1997 shootout with law enforcement officers in Wilmington.
Kehoe's younger brother, Cheyne Kehoe, also from Colville, was convicted Monday of attempted murder, assault and carrying a concealed weapon in the videotaped shootout in Wilmington. He has not yet been sentenced.
Dan Vogel, an FBI spokesman in Oklahoma City, declined comment Friday on any links Kehoe may have to the McVeigh case.