Agents Deny Weaver Was Set Up Feds Say Separatist Brought Trouble On Himself

Appearing before a Senate inquisition Thursday, federal firearms agents denied setting up Randy Weaver and said the white separatist was targeted because he fit the profile of a major guns dealer.

Agents expressed regret that their hunt for Weaver ultimately turned into a bloody standoff that claimed three lives, but they said Weaver had put the whole tragedy in motion.

“It was Mr. Weaver’s actions that set this into play,” John Magaw, director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said in a written statement to senators. He did not testify.

The Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information will continue hearings into the Ruby Ridge siege today. Scheduled to testify is a Spokane man, who as a federal informer, purchased two illegal shotguns from Weaver for $450.

Andrew Vita, the ATF’s deputy director, said Weaver had unlimited access to weapons that couldn’t be traced with proper federal registration paperwork. “Mr. Weaver volunteered to violate federal firearms law,” Vita testified.

Added Magaw in his written account: “Mr. Weaver was not entrapped. He was not persuaded or coaxed by the government to sell illegal weapons. The idea to supply the weapons originated in Mr. Weaver’s own mind.”

One ATF tape recording has Weaver suggesting he could supply an informant with four or five illegal shotguns a week.

Subcommittee chairman and presidential hopeful Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., led the charge against agents he said showed “extraordinary” investigative interest in a man whose only crime was selling a pair of short shotguns.

Also grilling agents was Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, a non-voting member invited to sit on the subcommittee. Craig also is on the board of directors of the National Rifle Association, which has been sharply critical of the ATF.

Even Sen. Herb Kohl, the ranking Democrat on the panel, asked critical questions.

Spokane ATF agent Herb Byerly testified that informer Kenneth Fadeley met Weaver, now 47, at the Aryan Nations compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho, in the mid-1980s. Fadeley hoped to parlay his emerging friendship with Weaver to meet others suspected of more serious guns and explosives violations.

After Weaver sold the guns, Byerly and fellow agent Steve Gunderson approached him and asked him if he would work for them as an informer.

“I made the decision that I had nothing to lose, that I would go talk with Randy Weaver,” Byerly testified.

ATF and the FBI took an interest in various people attending Aryan Nations meetings in the early 1980s after some of them were implicated in crimes, including the murder of a Jewish talk show host in Denver, Byerly reminded the committee in opening remarks.

The illegal submachine gun used in that murder was later found displayed as part of a Hitler shrine in the Sandpoint home of an ex-convict whom Byerly investigated.

But subcommittee members wanted to know how the sale of shotguns could lead to three deaths, the suspensions of five top FBI officials and a dark cloud over federal law enforcement.

A deputy U.S. marshal and Weaver’s wife and 14-year-old son were killed during the 11-day siege in August 1992.

Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., said he couldn’t understand why the ATF “targeted Weaver, just a fellow sitting out under a tree with a hack-saw” cutting barrels off shotguns.

Specter started his questions by reminding ATF that its role as defined by law is to “intercept firearms going into the hands of violent criminals.”

Specter wanted to know whether ATF went after Weaver because he promised to supply illegal firearms or because the agency wanted him to become an informer inside the Aryan Nations.

“Mr. Weaver was not originally the target of that investigation,” Vita responded.

Kohl wanted to know how the ATF could consider Weaver a “major arms supplier.”

“He’s not a major firearms dealer, but you’re saying he could have become one?” Kohl asked Byerly.

“That is correct,” the agent responded.

Thompson later asked Byerly about a May 21, 1990, letter that ATF sent to the U.S. attorney’s office in Boise, recommending prosecution of Weaver for the sale of the two illegal shotguns.

That letter said Weaver was active in white supremacy circles, but incorrectly stated he “has been convicted of activities.” At that point, Weaver had not been convicted of any crimes.

Specter also produced a Feb. 28, 1991, federal memo that called Weaver a suspect in “several bank robberies” in Eastern Washington and Western Montana. Weaver was never charged with robbing banks.

“All of these things seem to jangle wrong,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told Byerly, who seemed initially tense under the hot lights of the Senate hearing room.

Leahy said after hearing Weaver’s gripping testimony on Wednesday, he awoke during the night and wondered how events had taken such tragic turns.

“If I could do anything to bring back the lives that were lost, of course I would,” Byerly responded.

The ATF agent later added: “I believe in my heart … that the techniques I used were proper.”

Craig also quizzed Byerly about a Marshal Service letter that stated ATF believed “Weaver has the potential to be another Bob Mathews and his homestead another Whidbey Island.”

That was a reference to the man who founded The Order, an Aryan Nations splinter group. Mathews died in a 1984 shootout on Whidbey Island with the FBI. He, like Weaver, is now a hero of the racist radical right.

“Doesn’t that cast an image bigger than Weaver” deserved? Craig asked.

When the hearings continue today, informer Fadeley is expected to appear under conditions that protect his identity and do not jeopardize other cases he is working, subcommittee staffers said.

It hadn’t been determined Thursday whether Fadeley would appear with a cloth sack over his head or be put in a special booth to hide his face.

Fadeley, who is a professional security consultant, has no criminal record. He has said he volunteered to become an ATF informer after a close friend, a Spokane police officer, was killed by members of an outlaw motorcycle gang.

The subcommittee eventually will turn its attention to the role played by the U.S. Marshal Service and the FBI.

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MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: THURSDAY’S DEVELOPMENTS Federal agent Herb Byerly of Spokane said Randy Weaver offered to provide a continuous supply of sawed-off shotguns to a confidential informer posing as an illegal arms dealer. Weaver told the informer he could supply up to five guns a week, agents say. Sen. Arlen Specter contended the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm’s interest in Weaver “was extraordinary” considering that Weaver’s only crime was selling two sawed-off shotguns to an undercover informer. Attorney General Janet Reno distanced herself from FBI mistakes at Ruby Ridge, saying the incident “happened under the prior administration, with other people in charge of the FBI and the Department of Justice.” She failed to mention that the alleged coverup may have gone into high gear in the spring and summer of 1993, shortly after she was sworn in as attorney general. Quote of the day: “And all this comes from somebody who sold two shotguns.” - Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt Witnesses today: ATF Director John Magaw; Henry Hudson, former director of the U.S. Marshal Service, and Michael Johnson, former U.S. Marshal for the District of Idaho.