Democrats Call for Scrutiny of NRA’s Role in Waco Hearings

The National Rifle Assn.’s role in preparations for House hearings into the raid on the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco, Tex., raises ethical questions that could contaminate the hearings, House Democrats charged Monday.

Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke of an “emerging pattern” of NRA involvement, citing an incident in which an NRA staff member gave the impression that she represented the committee holding the hearing when she interviewed a Texas social worker who is slated to testify.

The White House joined in, accusing the NRA of hijacking the Waco hearings to advance its own agenda and demanding that the GOP leadership “clear this up.”

Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the Judiciary Committee’s senior Democrat, and Schumer, ranking Democrat on its crime subcommittee, urged the chairmen of the Judiciary and Government Reform committees, Reps. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) and William F. Clinger Jr. (R-Pa.), to probe the NRA’s links to the committees.

The Republicans did not immediately respond.

Meanwhile, it was learned that Dun & Bradstreet, a major credit rating agency, has given the NRA its lowest possible ranking after studying the gun lobby’s financial records. Such a rating generally is reserved for companies with extreme financial difficulties and could make it harder for the organization to do business with banks and contractors.

The Waco hearings, starting Wednesday, are to examine possible mistakes and abuses of power in the 1993 confrontations at the Branch Davidian compound, during which four Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents and 86 members of the religious group died.

Schumer played the tape of a voice-mail message from Fran Haga, who identified herself as being “with the Waco hearing team that is working on putting together the Waco hearings.” The recipient of that message was Joyce Sparks, a Texas social worker who has been subpoenaed to testify about her visits to the Waco compound in 1992 to investigate the welfare of the children there.

Sparks said Haga did not admit she was working for the NRA until midway through the interview when Sparks pressed her.

The NRA, said Haga, did not intend to mislead Sparks and accused Schumer of threatening civil liberties “by targeting the freedom of association and the freedom to seek redress of grievances.”

Schumer also said that the NRA has paid a company to analyze weapons from the compound and that Robert Sanders, who is to testify as a former ATF official, has worked as an NRA lawyer.