Reagan Ready to ‘Take His Lumps, Let the Chips Fall’ : Press Aide Sees Tough Iran Report

President Reagan wants to “let the chips fall where they may” and is ready to “take his lumps” when the Tower Commission releases what the Administration expects to be a critical report on the Iran- contras scandal, the White House said today.

Presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, saying he reflected Reagan’s views, told reporters, “I think it’s going to be a critical report, a tough report, and the tougher the better.”

The commission was appointed by Reagan to investigate the covert activities of the National Security Council and its handling of arms sales to Iran and the potentially illegal diversion of arms profits to Nicaragua’s contras.

“We have said from the beginning, let the chips fall where they may,” Fitzwater said. “We’ll take our lumps. Get to the bottom of this. Tell us what happened.

‘Exactly What We Want’

“And if this report is critical and tough and lays it all out, that’s exactly what we want,” he said.

Asked about a report in the Washington Post concerning a possible White House cover-up after the weapons sale to Iran was disclosed, Fitzwater said, “That’s a matter for the investigative bodies to work out.”

“Our impression is the Tower board is doing a very thorough and complete job,” Fitzwater said. “We have been impressed with the job they are doing. . . . It is informative and insightful . . . aimed at getting to the bottom of these events.”

The board is the only investigatory group that has talked with Reagan about his recollections of the affair. It is also the only panel that has reviewed typewritten transcripts of his personal notes.

Report Scheduled Feb. 26

The panel, headed by former Texas Sen. John Tower, is scheduled to deliver its report to Reagan on Feb. 26. Fitzwater said he expects that it will be declassified and made public thereafter.

Also on the panel are former Secretary of State Edmund S. Muskie and Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser for President Gerald R. Ford.

“We have provided the Tower board everything it has asked for,” Fitzwater said.

Fitzwater said he does not “attach any significance” to the Tower panel’s receiving a huge new file Thursday of computer messages from a special National Security Council storage facility.

Thousands of Messages

Fitzwater said the new file came from an archive of computer disks that contained copies of computer records previously thought to have been erased.

The Los Angeles Times said the archive includes thousands of messages, known as PROFS, sent within the White House by the NSC staff.

On another matter, Fitzwater said Reagan did not take part in any illegal fund-raising for the contra rebels in Nicaragua. ABC News said people who contributed thousands of dollars to the contra cause were told they would be invited to White House briefings given by the President.

Acknowledging that Reagan spoke with the groups, Fitzwater said he has been assured by White House communications chief Patrick Buchanan and Mari Maseng, director of the public liaison office, “that fund raising has never been a part of those meetings.”