North Appealed Judge’s Ruling on Subpoena to Avoid Jail for Contempt

Lt. Col. Oliver L. North was trying to avoid being jailed for contempt of court last month when he appealed a sealed ruling by a federal judge on a grand jury subpoena, court records indicate.

A docket entry in North’s appeal of U.S. District Judge Aubrey Robinson Jr.’s May 8 ruling states that his attorneys filed a motion that day “for stay, or in the alternative, for bail.”

The reference to bail in the case docket on file in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals indicates that the former National Security Council aide was seeking to block his incarceration in a contempt-of-court action.

North, who has not been jailed, apparently won a stay of a contempt order by the district court, pending his appeal.

Immediate Motion

The former White House aide and his attorneys filed their appeal motion immediately after they appeared May 8 before Robinson on a sealed grand jury matter.

Such proceedings are held in closed court when there is a challenge to a grand jury subpoena.

Public documents later filed with the appellate court indicate that North is challenging the authority of special prosecutor Lawrence E. Walsh to enforce subpoenas issued by a special grand jury as part of his investigation of the Iran- contra scandal.

North’s challenge to the constitutionality of the independent counsel law under which Walsh was appointed by a special court is scheduled to be heard by a three-judge panel at a public hearing on Wednesday.

May Seek Papers

The precise nature of the subpoenas North is challenging is unclear. But since he would be entitled to invoke the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination before the grand jury, it is unlikely that Walsh is seeking to compel North’s testimony.

Thus, it is considered likely that the subpoena or subpoenas seek the production of personal papers or documents that are not protected by Fifth Amendment privilege.

Walsh’s investigation so far has resulted in two guilty pleas by fund-raisers to charges they illegally used a tax-exempt foundation to help arm the Nicaraguan rebels.

Conservative fund-raiser Carl R. (Spitz) Channell and Richard R. Miller, a public relations executive who worked for Channell’s foundation, both named North as a fellow conspirator.