Ex-Sen. Danforth Agrees to Lead Inquiry : Appointment: Those who know ‘Saint Jack’ say he’ll bring credibility to investigation of FBI actions surrounding Branch Davidian deaths in 1993.

Former GOP Sen. John Danforth has agreed to head what promises to be a contentious reexamination of the 1993 Branch Davidian disaster to determine why FBI agents falsely denied for six years that they used flammable munitions during the final hours of the standoff, Justice Department officials said Wednesday.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno is expected to formally announce the appointment this morning, even as criticism of her handling of the matter continues to grow on Capitol Hill.

“I’m beginning to think [Reno] should resign,” Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) told reporters. Lott went so far as to raise doubts about who started the fire at the compound near Waco, Texas--the “Waco bombing,” as he called it--and said that the recent disclosures raise serious concerns about Reno’s competence and integrity.

Lawmakers who know the former Missouri senator said that he should bring badly needed credibility to the investigation.

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh is recommending that none of his agents be assigned to assist in Danforth’s investigation, “to ensure a solid perception of independence,” according to one law enforcement source.

Several GOP lawmakers, however, expressed skepticism that the Justice Department will give Danforth the independence he needs to do the job effectively.

Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, threatened to introduce legislation creating a bipartisan congressional commission to investigate the Branch Davidian tragedy if the Justice Department moves to “obstruct” Danforth’s inquiry in any way.

“Six years has been too long to wait for the truth,” Hyde said.

With a number of congressional hearings, federal investigations and criminal prosecutions already long concluded, the painful memories of the events near Waco resurfaced with a rush in recent days after the FBI was forced to change its story about how the siege ended on April 19, 1993.

FBI officials acknowledged that agents in fact had fired several pyrotechnic tear gas canisters that morning at a concrete bunker near Branch Davidian leader David Koresh’s main building. Fire broke out at the compound about four hours later but federal authorities continue to insist that Koresh and his followers set the fire and that the tear gas had nothing to do with the blaze. About 80 people died in the conflagration or from gunshot wounds. The siege had begun 51 days earlier when federal agents raided the cult compound in search of illegal weapons. Four agents were killed in a shootout.

The episode has proved to be a political and public-relations disaster for Reno and the FBI. Reno pledged two weeks ago to launch an independent investigation to determine why pyrotechnic devices were used--despite the FBI’s assurances that they would not be--and who knew about it. She considered several prominent names in Washington circles to head the review but focused almost exclusively in recent days on Danforth, now a lawyer in St. Louis.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said he believes that Danforth will do “an outstanding job.”

“I think he’s in a position to be credible and objective,” Daschle said.

Reno, he said, “deserves commendation, not criticism. She has done an extraordinary job under very, very difficult circumstances. . . . She deserves every bit of the benefit of the doubt here until all the facts are known.”

David Thibodeau, a follower of Koresh, said Wednesday that he will be among those following the investigation closely.

“I’m just very mistrustful. I know there were a lot of shady things going on down there and they spent a lot of time trying to cover it up. I hope for the best and expect the worst,” he said in an interview.

Thibodeau is a plaintiff in the wrongful-death lawsuit filed against the government by relatives of many of the Branch Davidians who died.

Thibodeau, who wrote a just-released book alleging that the government caused the tragedy, said that most people once dismissed his theories as “crazy.” But now, he said, “people want to see for themselves.”

The task of revisiting the siege now falls to Danforth, the gangly, methodical Princeton University graduate whose grandfather founded the Ralston Purina animal food empire.

Danforth served 18 years in the Senate, retiring in 1994 to spend more time in Missouri with his family and his church. An Episcopal priest, Danforth earned the nickname “Saint Jack” on Capitol Hill--an admiring moniker from friends who saw him as a man of principle but a term of derision from critics who found him to be preachy and sanctimonious.

Although he is considered a moderate Republican, Danforth’s politics in the Senate were often tough to pigeonhole. He sometimes angered fellow Republicans by bucking the party position on gun control, health-care reform, the death penalty or prayer in the schools. But he also proved a hard-liner in his anti-abortion and foreign trade stances.

Danforth championed civil rights legislation. He also spearheaded the successful 1991 battle to win confirmation on the U.S. Supreme Court of Clarence Thomas, a former protege who holds conservative views on issues such as affirmative action.

That arduous episode led the senator in his 1994 book to question his own ethics.

Although Danforth defended Thomas in the book, the senator said that he came to regret the aggressive and even unfair tactics he used in attacking the credibility of Anita Hill, whose sexual harassment claims nearly derailed Thomas’ nomination.

“I believe I went too far,” he wrote.