Free Republic

Ex-prosecutor guilty in Davidian caseHe admits withholding notes about gas canisters02/07/2001By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning NewsFormer federal prosecutor Bill Johnston pleaded guilty to a felony Tuesday in St. Louis, admitting to withholding information about the use of pyrotechnic tear-gas canisters in the Branch Davidian siege from the Waco special counsel. In exchange for Mr. Johnston's guilty plea, the office of special counsel John C. Danforth agreed to drop a five-count felony indictment. The St. Louis federal prosecutors also agreed to recommend a sentence of probation for the offense of failing to report a crime – a charge ...

Pretrial hearing in Waco case rescheduled again01/30/2001Associated Press ST. LOUIS – A pretrial hearing has been postponed again for a former prosecutor accused of obstructing the investigation into the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco. The hearing for ex-prosecutor Bill Johnston originally was scheduled for Jan. 16, then postponed until Wednesday. Now, it has been rescheduled for 1:30 p.m. CST Feb. 6 before U.S. District Judge Charles Shaw in St. Louis. The case is being heard here because Waco Special Counsel John Danforth conducted the investigation from an office in St. Louis. The Waco Tribune-Herald on ...

Click here the story

Ex-Waco prosecutor wants charges dismissed01/11/2001Associated PressWACO – Felony charges against former assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston should be dismissed because he is being held to a higher standard of conduct than other government officials involved in the Branch Davidian siege, his lawyer says. Mr. Johnston, who admitted he withheld notes about the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound, is scheduled to go to trial April 2 on two counts of obstructing justice and three counts of lying to federal investigators and a grand jury. His attorney, Michael Kennedy, said those charges should be dismissed because the move to ...

Rap case suspension wrong, DEA chief says12/08/2000By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning NewsRap-A-Lot investigation• Read the text of the memo Extra content on other topics WASHINGTON – Acknowledging a troubling time for his agency, Drug Enforcement Administration chief Donnie Marshall told a congressional committee Thursday that a federal drug investigation of a Houston rap entrepreneur should not have been suspended last year. "This has been a difficult time for DEA. ... I am very troubled by the entire matter," he testified. "I want to preserve the integrity of DEA." Mr. Marshall also vowed to ensure no repeat of ...

Click here to go to the page

Waco deputy U.S. marshal asked to return for testify before special grand jury By TOMMY WITHERSPOON Tribune-Herald staff writer A special grand jury in St. Louis investigating the Branch Davidian case has asked that Deputy U.S. Marshal Mike McNamara of Waco return for a second round of testimony this morning. Supporters of former U.S. attorney Bill Johnston, who has been targeted by Special Counsel John Danforth's investigation, view the grand jury's request to hear from McNamara again as a positive sign for Johnston. "As I understand it, it is not the lawyers, it is the grand jury members who ...

Official vows to press drug probeHe warns Justice not to interfere11/04/2000By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning NewsHouse Government Reform Committee Chairman Dan Burton vowed Friday to subpoena federal agents and hold full-blown hearings on a troubled Houston drug case if the Justice Department continues blocking his panel's effort to learn whether the case was killed by political interference. DEA agent's attorney responds to Rap-A-Lot probe task force• Text of statement "I'm going to push this as hard as I can," said Mr. Burton of the federal investigation of Houston rap music entrepreneur James A. Prince and associates. Mr. Prince ...

Drug case inquiry revampedFBI, DEA to pool efforts in task force11/03/2000By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning News Facing blistering congressional complaints about possible political interference in a major drug case, the Justice Department on Thursday announced that a joint DEA-FBI task force will take up a troubled federal investigation of a prominent Houston rap entrepreneur. Related story Letters from the Rap-A-Lot / James Prince investigation The announcement came after House Government Reform Committee Chairman Dan Burton complained that the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Justice Department appeared to be stonewalling his committee's investigation of the drug probe. Assistant ...

11/02/2000By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning News Related story Letter from House Government Reform Committee Chairman Dan Burton DEA and Justice Department officials are stonewalling a congressional investigation of allegations that political interference killed a federal drug case against a Houston rap entrepreneur, a powerful House Republican said Wednesday. House Government Reform Committee Chairman Dan Burton charged that Drug Enforcement Administration officials tried Monday to stop his committee's investigators from interviewing Houston police detectives who worked on the joint DEA-Houston Police Department case targeting James A. Prince and his associates at Rap-A-Lot Records. The Indiana Republican said Justice officials ...

Pentagon Revising List of Those Exposed to Nerve Gas By Pauline Jelinek Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Tens of thousands of veterans of the Persian Gulf War should be getting a letter in the next month or so, telling them the Pentagon has revised its thinking on which of them were exposed to nerve gas. About 30,000 veterans told in 1997 that they were not exposed during the 1991 war are to be notified that they were exposed. And an equal number told before that they were exposed will now be told they weren't, Undersecretary of Defense Bernard ...

More subpoenas issued for grand jurors examining Davidian case10/25/2000Associated Press WACO – Five more Central Texas residents have been subpoenaed by Special Counsel John Danforth to appear next week in St. Louis before federal grand jurors re-examining aspects of the Branch Davidian investigation. U.S. District Judge Walter Smith, who presided over both the civil and criminal Branch Davidian trials, testified before the same grand jury last week. The five Waco residents subpoenaed to appear before the panel on Thursday all have close ties to Bill Johnston, the former assistant U.S. attorney who helped prosecute the Branch Davidian criminal case in ...

Prosecutor's supporters seek immunity from subpoenas in Davidian case10/25/2000By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning NewsFive supporters of former Waco federal prosecutor Bill Johnston filed a motion Wednesday seeking to block the special counsel's office from forcing them to testify before a federal grand jury investigating government actions in the 1993 Branch Davidian siege. The five Waco residents, including two deputy U.S. Marshals, a former Waco city manager and a prominent businessman, alleged that the grand jury subpoenas issued last week were part of an ongoing effort by the special counsel to intimidate Mr. Johnston and harass his supporters. Related ...

Subpoenas upheld in Waco caseJudge rules supporters of prosecutor must testify before grand jury investigating U.S. actions in siege10/26/2000By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning NewsA federal court in St. Louis on Wednesday refused to quash subpoenas forcing five supporters of former Waco prosecutor Bill Johnston to testify before a federal grand jury investigating government actions in the 1993 Branch Davidian siege. Houston attorney Dick DeGuerin, who filed a motion on behalf of the five Waco men, said U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh ruled after an hourlong closed-door hearing that he lacked legal grounds to throw out the subpoenas. They ...

Congressional inquiries to DEA and DEA e-mails on Vice President Al Gore10/28/2000 Related story Panel questions possible donations The following are two internal DEA E-Mails regarding the March 12 visit of Vice President Al Gore to Brookhollow Baptist Church in Houston, where Rap-A-Lot Records entrepreneur James A. Prince was a member and major financial supporter: --Original Message- From: Nims, James B. [a group supervisor at Houston DEA office] Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2000 1:10 PM To: Howard, Ernest L. [Special Agent in Charge of Houston’s DEA division office] I’ve just been advised that when VP Al Gore was here in ...

This is a Discussion thread on the released document. Read it, it's good!!! Burton cements it for history. Click on the link above to access the pdf document. <img src="http://www.dallasnews.com/specials/waco/wacofront.jpg"

Skeptics Sue for More Details of TWA Flight 800 Crash: From The Associated Press The Freedom of Information Act lawsuits are the latest challenge of the government's version of the crash. Theories of a cover-up and speculation about an accidental missile firing by the U.S. Navy have persisted since the crash on July 17, 1996. "A missile is the only object I know of that fits the characteristics that the eyewitnesses saw," said Tom Stalcup, chairman of a group of independent researchers studying the crash. The group, known as the Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization, sued in U.S. District ...

Anybody know what happened to my Thread about fading intrest in Waco. Had lots of rebuttals to stupid comments made by _Jim

Davidian case may be fadingReport quiets Senate interest07/27/2000By Michelle Mittelstadt / The Dallas Morning NewsWASHINGTON &#150; The appetite for more Senate investigation of the government's conduct surrounding the 1993 Branch Davidian siege may be waning, lawmakers acknowledged, now that the special counsel has exonerated federal agents of "bad acts."John Danforth, the former Republican senator from Missouri, appeared Wednesday before his one-time Senate colleagues to discuss an interim report he issued last week concluding that federal agents neither fired on the barricaded sect members nor contributed to the fire that ended the 51-day standoff and killed about 80 Branch Davidians near ...

Rangers testify of gas, torchFBI witness admits not seeing fire start07/08/2000By Lee Hancock / The Dallas Morning NewsWACO &#150; Texas Rangers said that they found a blackened torch and four fuel cans in the Branch Davidian compound's dining room and were told by a surviving sect member that the fire that consumed the building was fueled by Coleman gas.An FBI agent who was just outside the compound on the day it burned also described Friday how he and other agents tried to rescue sect members during the blaze. At one point, the agent testified, he left an armored vehicle to ...