Fawn Hall Testimony Expected

Leading off the witnesses today in the sixth week of congressional hearings on the Iran- contra affair will be Bretton Sciaroni, whose controversial legal opinion said that the covert activities of Lt. Col. Oliver L. North were within the law, and Fawn Hall, the secretary who reportedly helped North shred documents shortly before he was fired from his National Security Council job.

Although Hall played a relatively minor role in the Iran-contra drama, the strikingly attractive former model has become one of its most recognizable characters.

Hall, who will be testifying under a grant of limited immunity, is said to have provided the committees investigating the scandal with information about the inner workings of the White House office from which North ran a secret supply operation for Nicaragua’s rebels. He was fired last November, and Hall was reassigned to the Pentagon.

Sciaroni, counsel for the presidentially appointed Intelligence Oversight Board, wrote a legal memorandum that was later found in North’s safe. Written in 1985, it concluded that the National Security Council was exempt from a law that banned any government entity involved in intelligence activities from supporting the rebels.

Sciaroni noted that North’s military status with the Marines might bring him within the reach of the law but he added that “none of North’s activities during the past year constitutes a violation” of the law.