Assistant U.S. Attorney
Reveals DOJ CriminalityCorruption Institutionalized in Agency,
By Marvin Lee In a remarkable interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the federal prosecutor who worked on the Waco case longer than any other government lawyer has revealed the methods used by the Department of Justice to intimidate him after it discovered his intentions to reveal the truth about Waco.
Far Down Chain from RenoAssistant U.S. Attorney William W. Johnston said he saw the Justice Department:
1) Refuse to prosecute government agents who made false statements about the initial raid on the Branch Davidians by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
2) Deny using pyrotechnic tear gas for six years after federal prosecutors in Texas had learned of its use.
3) Classify him a mutineer for releasing information about the use of the pyrotechnic gas.
4) Send subtle -- and not so subtle -- messages threatening to pin blame on him for the delay in the release of information.
5) Stamp key Waco documents "privileged" to block their disclosure.
6) Obstruct his attempt to warn Attorney General Janet Reno that she was not being told the whole truth about Waco.
Last year, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch story, filmmaker Michael McNulty sought Johnston's help in getting access to crime scene evidence after being rebuffed by the higher-ups at the Justice Department.
Johnston contacted a public affairs officer in the Justice Department and says he got permission for McNulty, who found the now-famous pyrotechnic shell in the evidence.
On a Saturday morning in June, the lead lawyer defending the Justice Department in the civil suit brought by surviving Branch Davidians, Marie Hagen, called Johnston at home and angrily demanded to know whether he had allowed McNulty to see the evidence.
"She ended the conversation unquenched in her anger," Johnston later recounted in a letter to Reno. "Then within a day or so, I received a letter from Marie Hagen which directed that I account for my dealings with McNulty."
Things may become even more dicy for government whistleblowers such as Johnston. Ten years after Congress ordered the Justice Department to install protection for federal employees who report crimes by their superiors, the Department this month published whistleblower protection rules that simply defy their purpose. FBI agents who report crimes by superiors (consider Waco, Ruby Ridge, Filegate, and the investigations of TWA-800, Vince Foster, Chinagate and so on) at the Justice Department will not be protected from retaliation and retaliatory prosecution. They will only be protected if they report the crime up the chain of command.
Such rules are a clear indication that the Department of Justice is more concerned about maintaining cover-ups than it is about creating an environment where government misconduct will be exposed by the remaining honest government officials such as Johnston, who refuse to participate in a cover-up.
Published in the Nov. 29, 1999 issue of The Washington Weekly
Copyright 1999 The Washington Weekly (http://www.federal.com)
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