d) Allegation of the presence of "nigger
hunting licenses"
Randall claimed that he found a "nigger hunting license" and saw such licenses being passed around at the 1995 Roundup.
This allegation was reported in the July 11 Washington Times. In a meeting with OIG investigators in July, Randall initially claimed to have seen such licenses passed around but would not confirm or deny whether he had obtained one of them. Later in the same interview he stated that he had found one of these licenses in a bathroom but continued to be evasive about whether he still had one in his possession.
Randall did not produce either the alleged license or even a photograph of the license in response to our subpoena. Through other sources, we obtained a photograph, purportedly taken by Randall, of such a license. The photograph shows the license against a green towel. There is nothing in the photograph to corroborate the claim that it was obtained at the Roundup. Hayward testified that Randall went off by himself at the Roundup. Hayward himself did not see the license at the Roundup and was not with Randall when he supposedly found one in the bathroom. [ / Hayward terminated the interview before we could ask when he first learned that Randall had allegedly found the license. ]
"Nigger hunting license"
Fig. 40 Over 200 persons who attended the 1995 Roundup were interviewed, and none of these people saw such a license.
We found no credible evidence that "nigger hunting licenses" were available at the Roundup -- for sale or other distribution. Nearly half of the persons who attended the 1995 Roundup were interviewed during the course of this investigation, yet none saw such licenses. While some people admitted having seen them at gun shows in the South, they did not see them at the Roundup. The one person making this allegation, Jeffrey Randall, was not credible. First, he was evasive about answering any questions regarding his alleged discovery of such licenses at the Roundup, refusing to even confirm that he had obtained one there. Second, Randall claimed that he had found them everywhere and that they were being freely traded -- yet we could find no one else who claimed to have seen them. Significantly, many of these same people reported other racist conduct at this Roundup. Third, despite having a camera and purportedly taking pictures all around the campsite, there were no pictures of the license at the campsite. Randall's photograph of the license could have been taken anywhere. Fourth, even the picture itself, which Randall has widely disseminated in the media but refused to produce pursuant to an OIG subpoena, is suspect. The license in the photograph does not appear to be damaged in any way. Many witnesses concurred, however, that the bathrooms at the campground were filthy with backed up and overflowing toilets and were frequently hosed down to clean them out. It is implausible that a paper license could have survived undamaged in that environment. Finally, even Hayward did not claim to see the license and does not know anything about how or when Randall purportedly found the license at the campground.
The claim that such a license was found at this year's Roundup is also suspect because of how neatly it fit into Hayward and Randall's plan to discredit ATF. Hayward testified that such licenses were mentioned on the G. Gordon Liddy show in which the black ATF agents' lawsuit was described. Apparently, as evidenced by Cooper's testimony at the Senate hearing, a similar license was alleged to have been found in an ATF office in Oklahoma. Thus, at the time Hayward and Randall went in search of racist conduct, they were aware that such an item would be the proverbial "smoking gun." More than 200 people, many of whom spent several days at the 1995 Roundup, did not see such licenses. It is therefore implausible that Randall, who was purportedly present for only a few hours on a single day, managed to come across this highly inflammatory piece of evidence.
Finally, Randall has expressed his own motivation to discredit the ATF -- even if that means fabricating evidence to do so. As we noted earlier, Randall is a primary founder and a leader of the Gadsden Minutemen. According to an article in Media Bypass magazine in September 1995, the Gadsden Minutemen learned about the Roundup in mid-February 1995. [ / The accuracy of this article's claims is dubious. As Randall did not respond to our requests for an interview regarding "Operation Achilles Heel," we can only repeat the version he apparently gave to Media Bypass. We note, however, that many of the facts in the article regarding the Roundup are in error. For example, the article claims that Hayward is a twenty-year veteran robbery and homicide detective. He was in fact a police officer for a total of eight years, only a small portion of which was spent as a detective. Randall is referred to as a former Attalla, Alabama, police officer. He was in fact in the police reserves for several months. The article referred to the Buckwheat T-shirt as the "ATF 'Pocket Nigger' shirt" and claims that it was entered in a T-shirt competition at the 1992 Roundup. There is no support for either of these claims. The article claimed that Rightmyer admitted that the sign shown in the Hayward video was "posted at the entrance to the event in 1989 and 1990." Rightmyer did not admit any such thing, nor is there any credible evidence that any sign was posted at the entrance in either 1989 or 1990. The sign in the video appeared for a short period of time in 1990 inside the campground. The article claimed that the 1992 T-shirt has a drawing of an ATF agent on top of a police car. The drawing is of a Birmingham, Alabama, police officer, not an ATF agent. There is a photograph purporting to show two ATF agents drinking moonshine. Neither of the individuals is employed by ATF. The article also claimed that a number of ATF agents were in its centerfold photograph of a group of persons on motorcycles and displaying a confederate flag. No one identified any of the persons in the photograph as being employed by ATF. The article neglected to mention, however, that Hayward appears in the photograph. ] Shortly thereafter, Randall began "investigating" the Roundup. Within several weeks Randall purportedly made contact with Hayward, who told him of the videotape and photographs he had of the Roundup. In a June 1995 article posted on the Internet, Randall explained how he developed a plan to "infiltrate" the 1995 Roundup for the purpose of collecting evidence that would persuade Congress to dismantle the ATF. [ / Media Bypass contended that Hayward, who is referred to as "George," got Randall an invitation to attend. This is in error. Randall and Hayward were not invited to the Roundup. Hayward and Randall entered the campground from the rear, not through the registration area. ] In his frequent media appearances since July, Randall has blamed ATF officers for allegedly racist actions at the Roundup, even when he has no evidence that such agents were involved. To be sure, we do not suggest that merely because someone is seeking information to discredit an agency, they cannot be believed. But in this instance, Randall's actions cast substantial doubt on whether he is telling the truth.
This conclusion is further buttressed by Randall's refusal to comply with the subpoena for photographs and videotape of the Roundup he has acknowledged possessing, because it demonstrates an unwillingness to cooperate with authorities seeking to determine the truth about the Roundup. Indeed, on several occasions Randall has openly threatened bloodshed if the OIG subpoena was enforced. While Randall showed up unannounced and uninvited to an interview of another militia member and answered a few questions posed by OIG agents, he refused to be interviewed outside the presence of other militia members; refused to answer a number of pertinent questions; and cut the interview short. He and his lawyer subsequently ignored later requests for interviews by both the Treasury and Justice OIGs.
Randall's account thus is replete with inaccuracies and is internally inconsistent. His motivation to fabricate evidence appears to be strong, and his allegation is contradicted by more than 200 other witnesses. We therefore find no credible evidence that "nigger hunting licenses" were available at the 1995 Roundup.