North Lied About Paper Shredding--Meese Aide

Assistant Atty. Gen. William Bradford Reynolds, under fire for a shoddy preliminary probe of the Iran- contra scandal, today said Lt. Col. Oliver L. North lied to Congress about shredding documents under investigators’ noses.

“There was no shredding in my presence,” said Reynolds, one of two close aides to Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III who conducted the initial fact-finding inquiry that uncovered the diversion of Iran arms sales profits to the Nicaraguan rebels.

“His testimony was not credible. I know,” Reynolds said. “I am the one who had firsthand knowledge of that. I knew that was not the case.”

Reynolds’ contention was buttressed by the sworn testimony of Lt. Col. Robert Earl, North’s deputy on the National Security Council. Earl said North could not have shredded in the investigators’ presence because his office shredder was not functioning.

At the same time, however, Earl said he believed North did shred documents at another machine in the West Wing of the White House while Reynolds took a lunch break Nov. 22.

At that lunch, Reynolds disclosed to Meese the discovery of the April, 1986, memo proposing the diversion of Iran arms sales profits to the Nicaraguan rebels, which led three days later to North’s firing and the resignation of his boss, John M. Poindexter.

Appearing before the Iran-contra committees, North claimed he shredded sensitive documents while Reynolds and an assistant were in his office reviewing his files.

“I was working at my desk on other things, literally cleaning up files on lots of things and when I finished with a handful of documents, I’d walk up, walk past them, walk out the door. You know where the shredder was. Turn the corner, turn on the shredder and drop them in,” North said.

“They were working 10 feet from me. . . . They were working on their projects. I was working on mine,” North said, to laughter.

Reynolds said he had no indication that day that North would attempt to destroy evidence.

He also noted that if North did shred during lunchtime, he missed the vital diversion memo.