President Rejects Idea of Pardons : Opposes Clemency for Testimony of Poindexter, North

President Reagan has decided against pardoning either former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter or his aide Oliver L. North to compel them to testify in the Iran- contras scandal, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said Monday.

Speakes said that White House aides had discussed the possibility of Reagan pardoning the two men but had opposed it. Reagan also rejected the idea after being told the results of the earlier discussion, he said.

“The President has no plans for a pardon for North and Poindexter,” Speakes said.

Suggests Alternative

Instead, Reagan decided last week to urge Congress to seek limited immunity for the pair in exchange for their testimony before congressional committees--a move that so far has been rejected by members of the House and Senate.

The refusal of Poindexter, a Navy vice admiral, and of North, a Marine lieutenant colonel, to disclose their knowledge of the Iran affair has become a central obstacle to the public unraveling of details of the case. Moreover, it has been at the root of growing frustration within the Administration over the continuing attention being paid to the matter by Congress and the news media.

In refusing to answer congressional questions, Poindexter and North have cited the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Poindexter resigned his post Nov. 25, just before the public disclosure of the Administration’s effort to fund rebel operations in Nicaragua with money raised from the sale of weapons to Iran. North, who is said by Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III to have drawn up details of the operation, was relieved of his duties the same day.

Regan Relays Results

Reagan made his proposal to Congress that the two be given limited immunity from prosecution last Tuesday. Shortly before that, Speakes said, White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan had “relayed to (the President), or presented to him, the results of staff discussions that involved a number of ways to seek testimony.”

Among these was the option that Reagan would offer the two men a pardon for any criminal wrongdoing in connection with the case.

But, Speakes said, “the staff was not in favor of a pardon and, when the matter was presented to the President, the President said no, he was not in favor of a pardon.”

When asked whether Reagan’s decision was irrevocable, Speakes replied: “The President is not planning on a pardon for them, but of course, as the chief executive, one always retains the right for executive clemency.”

On Friday, Vice President George Bush increased the pressure on Poindexter and North to speak up on the subject, saying in a speech in Iowa that they should “come forward now, before Christmas, to answer just one key question: Did you tell the President about the diversion of funds?”

Reagan was said by a White House official to have been “fully informed” of Bush’s views and to have raised no objection to them.

“The speech was circulated in the White House, so it certainly reflects our viewpoint,” Speakes said.

An aide to Bush said that a draft of the vice president’s speech was sent to Reagan’s top aides Thursday evening and a final copy was distributed Friday morning. It reflected ideas Bush had discussed with his staff at the beginning of last week about the same time he, the President and Regan heard the report on the possible options for raising the pressure on Poindexter and North.

First Lady Comments

Earlier last week, First Lady Nancy Reagan said that her husband has done all he could to bring forth testimony from the two former aides.

“Well, he’s tried everything. He’s tried granting them immunity if that would do it. . . . Naturally, he would wish that they would come out on their own,” she said in an interview with United Press International.

Referring to Reagan’s proposal of limited immunity, to Bush’s statement and to Mrs. Reagan’s remark, Speakes declared Monday: “We made our point.”

The question of a pardon was raised yet again over the weekend by Rep. Jim Wright (D-Tex.), who will become Speaker of the House when Congress reconvenes Jan. 6.

With a pardon, Wright said in a televised interview Sunday on John McLaughlin’s “One on One,” Reagan could take full responsibility for the actions of his former aides--regardless of whether he knew the details of their work--and could clear the way for them to offer their testimony.

‘Straightforward Way’

“If he truly wants them to come forward and tell the whole truth, and if he wants them to have immunity from prosecution, there’s a simple way, a straightforward way,” Wright advised. “He can grant it with a stroke of a pen. Presidential pardon is the ultimate immunity.”

But in a subsequent statement issued Monday, Wright said:

“If the President really does not know the nature of the deeds performed by these men, he certainly should not have asked the Congress to grant them immunity from prosecution. If he does know and believes on the basis of that knowledge that they should be given immunity, then he is the one to grant it. The Constitution places that power, and that responsibility, in his hands.”

Under limited immunity, a defendant’s testimony cannot be used to obtain his conviction, although evidence gathered apart from the testimony is admissible. Speakes said that limited immunity would permit Poindexter and North to testify “and at the same time allow . . . justice to be done in this matter.”

In rejecting repeated suggestions that Reagan invite North and Poindexter to his office and demand that they disclose to him details of the operation, Speakes has said that the two men’s constitutional rights to remain silent apply in the Oval Office as well as in a congressional hearing or a courtroom.