Joint Panel Votes Limited Immunity for Col. North : Prosecutor’s Deadline Now July 16

House and Senate investigating committees voted today to grant limited immunity to former White House aide Oliver L. North to compel his testimony in private about the Iran- contra affair but agreed to delay any public testimony until at least July 16.

That means that special prosecutor Lawrence E. Walsh, the chief criminal prosecutor in the affair, will have at least another three weeks before he will have to file all his independently gathered evidence against North under seal before a federal judge.

Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), chairman of the House panel, announced today that the committees have agreed not to take private testimony from North until June 15 and will permit no public testimony before July 16.

The committees had agreed last March with Walsh that they would not have North testify publicly before June 23.

Walsh Grateful

Hamilton said the committees will take another vote to decide whether North will, in fact, ever be called to testify publicly.

Walsh, who had pleaded Wednesday for a delay in granting immunity to North, promptly issued a statement expressing gratitude for the committees’ action.

“The precautions they have taken to prevent premature and perhaps unnecessary exposure of Col. North’s testimony will reduce as much as is reasonably possible any adverse effect on our investigation,” he said.

Under the limited grant of immunity, Walsh may not use any immunized testimony from North either to prosecute or investigate him.

‘Looking for a Cover’

Earlier today, a surprise witness told the committees that Iran-contra banker Albert Hakim’s lawyer said he was “looking for a cover” to pay $70,000 to North’s wife as a reward to the former White House aide.

David M. Lewis, a Washington lawyer who volunteered to testify, said his advice was sought during a luncheon meeting last Oct. 10 in Geneva with lawyer Willard I. Zucker, who was Hakim’s financial manager.

Zucker, Lewis said, was looking for a “mirror transaction” in which money intended for North would be channeled to his wife, Betsy, possibly in the form of a commission from a real estate broker. He said the broker would simultaneously be reimbursed by Hakim with a deposit in a bank anywhere in the world the broker chose.

Lewis said nothing came of the conversation, and he did not pursue the matter.

Lewis’ testimony served to corroborate Hakim’s disclosure Wednesday that he used proceeds from U.S. arms sales to Iran to establish a $200,000 trust fund in Switzerland for North’s family shortly before the former National Security Council deputy undertook a risky secret mission to Tehran in May, 1986. (Story on Page 8.)

‘Anonymous’ Diversion

Hakim added that he had asked Zucker to find a way to make an “anonymous” fund diversion to North’s family, because he knew it was illegal to make a payment directly to a U.S. government employee.

Lewis said Zucker told him in Geneva that “he was looking for a cover for someone to pay money to a certain person in the United States,” whom he identified as “the wife of someone in the White House.”

“I got the impression he had a wealthy client who wanted to get money or reward someone in the United States and wanted a business transaction to do it in.”

Zucker, Lewis said, indicated that “the money was earned by a person in the White House in an unrelated matter, but he did not want to pay money to the person in the White House because of his sensitive position.”

Lewis said Zucker identified that person as North.