Waco 'Whistleblower' Indicted

S T.  L O U I S, Nov. 9 -- A former government prosecutor has been indicted on federal charges of obstructing the investigation into the 1993 siege at the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, that he helped set in motion.

Former assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston was charged with two counts of obstruction of justice and three counts of lying to investigators and a federal grand jury.

The indictment was returned Wednesday as Waco special counsel John C. Danforth released his final report absolving the government of wrongdoing in the siege.

Attorney Michael Kennedy, while acknowledging that Johnston made mistakes in his dealings with the special counsel, called the charges baseless and unfair.

“Danforth seeks to destroy the messenger and whitewash the governmental excesses of Waco,” he said. “While Bill’s mistakes were harmless, the same cannot be said for so many other government employees, who today are merely chastised or ignored completely by Mr. Danforth.”

Helped Write the Waco Warrant

Johnston helped draft the search warrant that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms tried to execute on Feb. 28, 1993, at the Waco compound. The botched raid turned into a gunfight in which four federal agents and six Davidians were killed.

The shootout sparked the 51-day standoff that ended on April 19, 1993, with a fire that consumed the compound, killing sect leader David Koresh and some 80 followers inside.

Johnston in 1994 helped convict nine Davidians during their criminal trial.

In 1999, federal Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. ordered the government to give him all records and evidence connected with the standoff. Johnston then complained publicly that the Justice Department was covering up evidence showing FBI agents had fired pyrotechnic tear gas at the compound.

Justice Department and FBI officials denied for years that the government had used anything capable of sparking fires when they employed tanks and tear gas to try to end the standoff.