Justice Aide Tells of Lies, Deceit by Key U.S. Officials : North Urged Untruthful Testimony, Panel Is Told

Assistant Atty. Gen. Charles J. Cooper, drawing a portrait of deceit at the highest levels of the Reagan Administration, described today how some officials lied to each other and schemed to deceive Congress last November as the Iran- contra scandal was unraveling.

Cooper told the Senate and House investigative committees that at a meeting of top-level Reagan officials, Lt. Col. Oliver L. North personally rewrote CIA Director William Casey’s already incorrect proposed congressional testimony, heightening the deception.

Cooper said then-National Security Adviser John Poindexter and Casey himself raised no objection to the changes.

The Justice Department official, 35 years old and direct and unemotional in his answers to committee lawyers, indicated he was confused at first, then shocked to the point of considering resignation as he dug deeper into the Iran-contra affair at the behest of Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III.

Explosive Testimony

His testimony about men who served at the highest levels of government was stated quietly, but it was as explosive as any heard in nearly seven weeks of the nationally televised hearings.

When Casey delivered his testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, the day after the meeting Cooper described, it did not include the disputed part--a sentence that claimed no one in the U.S. government knew that arms had been sent to Iran in the fall of 1985.

However, that single sentence, a blatant attempt at a cover-up, caused a chain reaction of consternation, with State Department legal adviser Abraham Sofaer threatening to resign if Casey gave it as written, and with Secretary of State George P. Shultz confronting President Reagan about it that night at the White House.

On the following morning, Friday, Nov. 21, the President ordered Meese to begin an investigation of Administration involvement in the Iran-contra affair and to report back on Monday.

At the very start of the inquiry, on Saturday, a Meese aide found in North’s files a memo that revealed that profits from the arms sales had been diverted to the Nicaraguan rebels. It was the first solid evidence of that activity.

Meese said something “analogous to ‘Oh, darn’ ” when he learned, Cooper said. As laughter erupted in the crowded hearing room, he added: “Perhaps more strenuous than that.”

President’s Reaction

The President’s reaction to the news, as described by Meese who told him on Monday, was “one of surprise . . . complete surprise,” Cooper said.

That account is in line with Reagan’s oft-repeated contention that he knew nothing of any such diversion before being told by Meese.

North, Poindexter, former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane and other officials were questioned during that weekend last November, but Cooper said Meese did not order White House records sealed in the case until after Reagan announced what was going on at mid-day Monday on national television.

Even then, because of a misunderstanding of Meese’s orders, the files weren’t protected until that evening. When Meese learned that, Cooper said, he “exhibited a rare flash of irritation.”

Other witnesses’ testimony has shown that North, his secretary Fawn Hall and possibly others altered, destroyed and removed piles of records during that weekend, and Meese has been criticized for not sealing things off and beginning a formal Justice Department investigation much sooner.

Cooper said that Poindexter volunteered that he “fully understood” he had to resign when investigators uncovered the contra funding.

North, who was fired on Monday after that weekend, will tell his side of the story when he testifies at the public hearings beginning July 7.