Investigators Prepare For Weaver Probe Kevin Harris May Be Questioned This Weekend As Hearings Near
Congressional investigators are in the region this weekend, questioning potential witnesses for next month’s Senate hearing into the Randy Weaver siege.
The hearing, after Labor Day, likely will get as much media attention as one earlier this summer into the Branch Davidian disaster in Waco, Texas.
Weaver, the white separatist who was at the center of the 11-day standoff with the FBI at Naples, Idaho, is expected to be the first witness.
His daughters, Sara, 19, and Rachel, 14, who now live with him in Iowa, also may appear.
The hearing is before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information.
Testimony is scheduled for Sept. 6 and 8, and will resume for three days on Sept. 13.
The committee also has blocked out Sept. 19-22, but those dates could be canceled if testimony is concluded before then, aides say.
The seven-member subcommittee is chaired by Sen. Arlen Specter, of Pennsylvania, who is a Republican presidential candidate.
Specter told Time magazine that he plans to “raise hell” with the FBI at the hearing.
Other Republican members are Sens. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, Spencer Abraham of Michigan and Strom Thurmond of South Carolina.
The ranking Democrat on the committee is Herb Kohl of Wisconsin. Sens. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont and Dianne Feinstein of California also are on the committee.
Sen. Larry Craig, one of the first to call for congressional hearings into the Weaver case, will sit as an ad hoc committee member.
The Idaho Republican will join other subcommittee members in questioning witnesses, but he won’t be able to vote on any issues that come before the committee.
Committee staffers said Friday they still aren’t certain how many witnesses will be subpoenaed.
“It’s sort of fluid, at this point,” said a senior staff aide in Specter’s office.
Kevin Harris, a friend of Weaver’s who fatally shot deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan at the outset of the siege, may appear before the committee.
Harris, who has been living in Republic, Wash., or his attorney, David Nevin, is expected to meet with committee lawyers this weekend, probably in Spokane or Coeur d’Alene.
Nevin said he hasn’t decided whether he will urge his client to testify or recommend against an appearance. Harris still has a $20 million claim pending against the federal government.
Weaver and his daughters just received a $3.1 million settlement from the federal government for the deaths of Vicki Weaver and the Weavers’ 14-year-old son, Samuel.
Five top FBI officials, including former deputy Larry Potts, are suspended for alleged wrongdoing associated with the Weaver case.
Two of the FBI agents admit they destroyed documents showing that bureau supervisors changed rules of engagement to say the FBI snipers “could and should” shoot any armed adult seen at Weaver’s mountain top cabin near Ruby Ridge.
But the hearing also likely will look at the entire case - beginning when a federal informant met Randy Weaver at the Aryan Nations compound in 1986. Three years later, Weaver agreed to sell two illegally sawed-off shotguns to the informant.
, DataTimes