FBI Credibility on the Line

To try to dig out the truth about what federal officials did at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, six years ago, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno has named former Sen. John Danforth, a Missouri Republican, as special counsel with full prosecutorial powers and promised she will do nothing to impede his investigation.

By distancing herself from an inquiry whose central focus will be on what employees of the Justice Department and the FBI knew and said about the events at Waco, Reno is rightly seeking to encourage confidence in the department’s independence and objectivity. In appointing Danforth, who spent eight years as his own state’s attorney general and whose probity and competence won bipartisan respect during his 18 years in Congress, she has chosen well.

This won’t be a quick process. Danforth says he hopes to complete his investigation by the presidential election in November 2000. But since it’s uncertain where the inquiry might lead, there’s no certainty when it might end. The FBI’s recent admission that it used incendiary tear gas canisters on the last morning of the 51-day siege against the Davidians has spread suspicions about whether the agency is hiding other details of the encounter that led to the deaths of 80 cult members.

Some officials aren’t waiting for Danforth’s findings to make judgments. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said Thursday that he now doubts the government’s story that the Davidians were to blame for the fire that destroyed the compound’s main building.

A major question is whether Congress will leave the investigation solely in Danforth’s hands. Republicans seem split, with some urging a separate congressional inquiry and others inclined to trust the special counsel to determine the facts. Parallel investigations, especially those where the prospect of political advantage beckons, don’t always serve the best interests of justice. Danforth has the authority to subpoena, to use a federal grand jury, to seek indictments. Congress has no tools more powerful than these, and a single investigation, led by the special counsel, is the preferable course.

Reno has said her credibility is now on the line. Even more at stake is the credibility of the FBI, for that is where the fudging of facts originated. It is odd that those who clamor the loudest for Reno’s resignation are so curiously silent when it comes to questioning the role of the FBI. Danforth’s investigation is unlikely to be so selective when it comes time to apportion responsibility.