Contra Link Is ‘Smoking Gun,’ Reagan Quoted

Using a Watergate-era term, President Reagan said Tuesday that he was warned by Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III that the clandestine transfer of Iranian arms profits to Nicaraguan rebels was a “smoking gun,” a Republican governor said.

Reagan said Meese used the words “smoking gun” on Nov. 24 when he first informed the President about the funneling of money to the contras, New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean said.

“He used the words ‘smoking gun,’ ” Kean said, referring to Reagan’s comments at his meeting with Republican governors and governors-elect. “He knows there’s something wrong, no question about it--something wrong in the transfer of money.

“They are trying to find out who did what in the transfer of money.”

The term “smoking gun” was used during the Watergate probe by House Judiciary Committee members in referring to irrefutable evidence that would link President Richard M. Nixon directly to the Watergate cover-up. That evidence was found on a tape recording made in the Oval Office.

‘Had Not Known’

After Tuesday’s meeting, which came hours after the governors had met with Nixon in New Jersey, Kean told reporters that Reagan “mentioned the fact that he heard for the first time . . . he understood from the attorney general that there was a smoking gun,” referring to “the transfer of money and that he had not known about it.”

The President has acknowledged his involvement in the covert sale of weapons to Iran but has denied any knowledge of the secret financing of the contras with profits from the weapons sales.

After talking to Reagan, Kean said: “I have a strong feeling of a man who desperately wants to get the facts before the American people. But there’s a legal problem (with the investigations under way).

“He recognizes the fact that this is all-consuming--that it is taking people’s eye off the ball,” said Kean, incoming chairman of the Republican Governors’ Assn.

Gov. John H. Sununu of New Hampshire, outgoing chairman of the group, told reporters that the Administration has a problem with “perception” and reality in the case of the current scandal but said he thinks Reagan acted in a “timely” fashion to resolve the issue.