Gop Wants Clinton’s Waco Notes

Congressional Republicans investigating the FBI raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, are insisting the White House hand over confidential documents, including President Clinton’s handwritten notes and other papers bearing on how the April 1993 raid was approved. Both sides know how politically explosive the issue could be in the House hearings set to begin next week.

A joint House committee’s demands for the papers have raised alarms within the administration that Republicans will try to use the hearings not only to embarrass Attorney General Janet Reno and the federal law enforcement agencies that participated in the raid, but also the president. Clinton was briefed on the FBI’s final assault the day before it occurred on April 19, 1993.