Former U.S. Forest Service investigator Michael Merkley, who was involved with the probe into the tree-spiking case, disputed Stone-Manning’s account, alleging she helped plan the 1989 spiking incident while involved with the environmental group Earth First while she was in graduate school. Biden Land Management nominee ‘collaborated with eco-terrorists,’ traded testimony for immunity According to Merkley, she later testified against those involved in the plot in 1993 and was granted legal immunity for testifying that she retyped and sent an anonymous letter to the U.S. Forest Service on behalf of her former roommate saying that 500 pounds of spikes had been jammed into trees in Idaho. “She was aware that she was being investigated in 1989 and again in 1993 when she agreed to the immunity deal with the government to avoid criminal felony prosecution,” he said in a letter sent to the panel, adding that “Stone-Manning was not an innocent bystander nor was she a victim in the case.”