Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
From: [l v c] at [cbvox1.att.com]
Subject:      Weaver trial update: ATF investigation report
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 1994 18:07:58 GMT


The following article appeared in the Friday, July 8, 1994
edition of the _Idaho Statesman_.

Report backs ATF charges against Weaver.

Reno's still reviewing report on standoff in Northern Idaho.

The Associated Press and Statesman staff.

     A federal report released Thursday says the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms did nothing wrong in bringing
the illegal firearms charge against white separatist Randy
Weaver.
     But the findings of Justice Department invesitgation into
the actions of the U.S. Marshal's Service abd FBI during the
deadly 1992 seige of Weaver's Panhandle cabin were still
being reviewed by U.S. Attorney Janet Reno.
     Reno ordered the investigation a year ago.  The 11-day
seige came after a shootout between Weaver and federal
agents.  They had set up a surveillance of the cabin after
Weaver failed to appear for his trial on a firearms charge.
     Deputy Marshal William Degan and Weaver's 14-year old
son Samuel were killed in the shootout.  Weaver's wife,
Vicki, was shot dead by an FBI sniper the next day as she
stood near the cabin doorway.
     Weaver and fellow white separatist Kevin Harris were
acquitted of murder and related charges in connection with the
siege, and Weaver served 15 months in jail for failing to
appear for the trial on the charge that he sold two sawed-off
shotguns to an ATF informant.
     Northen Idaho officials are conducting their own
investigation into the seige with the possibility of charging
federal agents with criminal conduct in the killings of Vicki
Weaver and her son.
     One of Weaver's attorneys, Garry Gilman of Boise, called
the Justice report "an obvious whitewash."
     "One of the problems with this report is whenever you see
a list of what they reviewed you will never see that they
reviewed the sworn testimony of their agents and paid
informants," Gillman said, "Confidential informants' notes,
status reports, that's all internal stuff.  They didn't look at the
testimony.  ... It's the kind of coverup that has a lot of cheap
shots."
     Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho asked for the
inquiry into the Treasury Department agency, which raised
questions about whether Weaver had been improperly made a
target for prosecution for his religious beliefs.
     "Our review showed that the BATF did not target Mr.
Weaver for invesitgation because he ascribed to any particular
religious beliefs," the department's deputy inspector general,
Robert Cesca, wrote in a cover letter to Craig.
     "BATF acted properly in the initial investigation and
arrest of Mr. Weaver," Cesca concluded.  "Mr. Weaver was
associated with individuals believed to be involved in violent
criminal activity when he made an offer to sell sawed-off
shotguns to a BATF informant.  He became the subject of an
investigation when the guns were sold."
     The 10-page report simply rejected the statements made
by Weaver and his attorneys that the informant was the one
who repeatedly prodded Weaver until Weaver finally agreed
to to provide the ilegal shotguns.  Weaver's lawyers backed
up their claim by citing the agency policy of providing
financial rewards to informants whose efforts lead to
convictions.
     Instead, the report backed up the contention of the
informant that Weaver made the initial offer to provide the
weapons.  It said the informant, who met Weaver while an
infiltrator into the Panhandle-based Aryan Nation, was dealing
with Weaver only so he could infiltrate a Montana group
believed to be violent, and agents made Weaver a target of
investigation only after the gun sale offer was made.
     As to concerns over the fact that 14 months passed
between the time of the illegal sale and when Weaver was
formally charged, the report laid the delay on the fact that
agents were concerned about the safety of their informant and
that federal prosecutors already had other cases backed up
ahead of Weaver.
     Then, when the informant's cover with the Aryan Nation
was blown six months after the sale, agents tried to convince
Weaver to become an informant.  When he refused, the
government proceeded with charges against him, the report
said.
     It said the informant first met Weaver at the 1986 Aryan
Nation World Congress where the informant discovered
another individual's plan to kidnap children of wealthy people
and hold them for ransom.  The report said the informant met
numerous times with the individual planning the kidnapping
scheme over the next three years and that Weaver was present
at four of those meetings.
     Information concerning the kidnapping plot was provided
to the FBI and the school attended by the children, the report
said, and the school fired the individual before he could carry
out the scheme.
     Attoryney Gilman cited several problems with the Justice
Department report:

*    The ATF informant testified at Weaver's trial that he was
not promised a monetary settlement for turning Weaver in but
later said that he misspoke and was tired from all the
questioning.
     "It wasn't a monetary 'oops.'  He answered a lot of
questions (during the trial) on this (subject)," Gilman said.

*    Gilman said the report leaves the impression that Weaver
was convicted of two crimes - failure to appear for court and
commission of a crime while on pre-trial release.  Weaver
was only found guilty of failure to appear.

*    The report includes allegations that Weaver made death
threats against President Ronald Reagan.  Gilman said a
Secret Service investigation cleared Weaver.
     "Weaver voted for Reagan," Gilman said.  "There was no
basis for the charge."

[end text]


--
Larry Cipriani, [l v cipriani] at [att.com] or attmail!lcipriani