News Release

April 9, 2001

Danforth report on Waco "soft and incomplete," scholar says
New Cato study identifies crimes by government agents

WASHINGTON—When former Sen. John Danforth was named special prosecutor to investigate the Waco incident in the fall of 1999, he promised an aggressive and thorough probe into allegations of government misconduct. Danforth's office closed in February and his final report has been treated as the final word in many quarters, but a new Cato Institute study charges that "Danforth's sweeping exoneration of federal officials is not supported by the factual evidence."

In "No Confidence: An Unofficial Account of the Waco Incident," criminal justice scholar Timothy Lynch analyzes the legal implications of certain undisputed events and concludes that the official investigation into the incident was "soft and incomplete." According to Lynch, many obvious crimes have gone unprosecuted.

For example, ATF agents were caught on tape assaulting a local television cameraman after he had filmed their retreat from the initial raid on the Branch Davidian complex. ATF agents also lied to federal investigators-a federal offense-but were never prosecuted despite recommendations by U.S. Marshals, Lynch says.

More seriously, FBI agents exhibited a gross disregard for human life when they indiscriminately fired "ferret" rounds at the Davidian residence and used tanks to ram its walls. "Since at least one child was struck by a ferret round, second-degree murder charges may be appropriate," Lynch writes.

Also, the involvement of certain FBI officials in the Waco operation "should have set off alarm bells with Special Prosecutor Danforth's investigators," Lynch writes. Those officials were suspended by the Department of Justice for their involvement in the controversial "Ruby Ridge" incident-one of them eventually being sentenced to 18 months in prison for destroying evidence and lying to investigators about his role in that cover-up.

Lynch points out that the involvement of those officials in supervisory positions at Waco was not even mentioned in the special prosecutor's report. "Danforth should have hauled those individuals before a grand jury and questioned them about missing Waco evidence," Lynch says. "He did not."

If the crimes chronicled in his study go unpunished, Lynch concludes, "the Waco incident will leave an odious precedent-that federal agents can use the 'color of their office' to commit crimes against its citizens."

"No Confidence: An Unofficial Account of the Waco Incident"