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Official: Tsarnaev Brothers Did Not Directly Receive State Welfare Benefits

BOSTON (AP) — The Massachusetts welfare agency has released new details about state benefits received by the family of the Boston Marathon suspects.

The interim commissioner of the state Department of Transitional Assistance, Stacey Monahan, wrote in a letter to a lawmaker that neither Tamerlan nor Dzokhar Tsarnaev directly received state welfare benefits at any time.

The brothers did, however, receive benefits in the past through their parents, and Tamerlan also received benefits from September 2011 to November 2012 through his wife, Katherine Russell.

The letter was sent to Rep. David Linsky, chairman of the House Post Audit and Oversight Committee, in response to a request for information from the panel.

Monahan says the letter was made public because she believes the public interest in the case outweighs the suspects' privacy interests.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

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