Reno Deposition on Davidians Released

Under fierce questioning, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno told attorneys for the Branch Davidians last week that she would not second-guess the FBI’s handling of the 1993 siege of the cultists’ compound near Waco, Texas, because “I was not there in a tank,” according to a transcript released Wednesday.

“They have got to make instantaneous judgments there on the scene that I cannot advise of,” Reno said during a two-hour sworn deposition March 29 at her Justice Department office. It was the only deposition she has given in the case.

The Davidians and their families have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the government, alleging that federal agents effectively created a “deathtrap” at leader David Koresh’s Mount Carmel compound. The 51-day standoff ended April 19, 1993, in a fiery blaze that took the lives of about 80 people.

Trial is scheduled to begin May 15 in U.S. District Court in Texas.

The attorneys for the Davidians, seeking to show that agents at the scene acted in reckless disregard of orders from Washington, had planned to release a transcript of Reno’s deposition later this month. But the Justice Department beat them to it Wednesday, filing the transcript in Texas in an effort to buttress their motion to throw out part of the Davidians’ case.

At her videotaped deposition, Reno was defiant and sometimes emotional in testifying about the tragedy. Controversy over her handling of the episode has dogged her for much of her seven years in office.

The transcript shows her bristling at the suggestion that authorities were anything less than patient in dealing with the cultists. The group killed four agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who were trying to execute a search warrant at the compound in a shootout that led to the siege. Koresh and his followers also had stockpiled weapons and thrown a phone out the window to signal an end to negotiations.

Reno said repeatedly that FBI agents at the scene on the last day of the siege had broad “discretion” in carrying out a plan she had approved for raiding the compound and using tear gas to roust the Davidians.

She said that Koresh’s unpredictability, unconfirmed reports of child abuse inside the compound and other factors all drove her to approve the tanks’ insertion of tear gas in the compound that morning.

“This was the best time in which we would have the best opportunity to control [the situation] and to try to protect lives,” she said.

But fire erupted about six hours after the tear gas operation began. About 80 people, including 19 children, died inside.

Federal authorities, backed by forensic reports, have steadfastly insisted that the Davidians set the fire themselves in a mass suicide.

But that account was called into question last year when federal authorities were forced to acknowledge--after years of denials--that FBI agents had fired several pyrotechnic devices at a concrete bunker near the main compound. The disclosure forced Reno to appoint an outside counsel, former Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), to conduct a still-ongoing investigation.

Reno testified that she did not know at the time that pyrotechnics were used at the scene, nor did she authorize their use in advance. The agents “did not have an implied authority to use pyrotechnic devices to insert gas in the compound,” she said.

She also repeatedly disputed the contention by Davidian attorneys that on-the-scene agents ordered the tanks to “demolish” the compound. The tanks were only seeking to penetrate compound walls to insert tear gas, she said.

Michael Caddell, an attorney for the plaintiffs, charged that the government’s release of Reno’s transcript violated a court order to keep it confidential for 30 days. He threatened to seek sanctions against the Justice Department and release confidential depositions bolstering his own case.

Justice Department officials said that the court’s order allowed them to review the deposition for any privileged information and release it on their own.