Politics : Robertson Says He Will Drop Libel Lawsuit : Proposes Arbitration on McCloskey’s Charge He Shirked War Duties

Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson said Tuesday he will drop his libel suit against former Rep. Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey Jr. rather than have it go to trial on the biggest day of the primary elections season.

Robertson, who was accused of using his father’s influence to avoid combat duty in the Korean War, said he wants to take the case to voluntary arbitration in an effort to clear his and his father’s names. He said if McCloskey refuses to go along with that, he will drop the suit anyway.

McCloskey’s lawyer, George Lehner, said that arbitration was proposed nine months ago but was rejected by Robertson’s lawyers. He said that for Robertson to propose it on the eve of the trial date was “a little disingenuous” and “a red herring.”

Lehner has said repeatedly that McCloskey will not agree to settle the case unless Robertson pays the former congressman’s legal fees--estimated at $400,000.

“We are prepared to go to trial,” Lehner said after he learned of Robertson’s announcement. If he wants to drop the suit, Lehner said, Robertson must pay the legal fees McCloskey has incurred in preparing for his defense.

Trial Date Conflict

Robertson’s $35-million suit accuses McCloskey of defaming him in a widely publicized letter that said Robertson, as a Marine Corps officer, used the influence of his father, the late Sen. A. Willis Robertson, to avoid combat duty in Korea. The case had been scheduled for March 8, the day Republican primaries and caucuses will take place in 17 states, including Florida, where Robertson was campaigning.

“In order to compete in that trial I would have to break off my campaign today and run the risk of losing Florida, Texas, South Carolina and other parts of the South,” Robertson told reporters in an airport news conference. “That was an impossible decision for me to make, and an unfair one.”

He has proposed that the issue be referred to the Iowa Libel Dispute Program, run by the University of Iowa College of Law and the American Arbitration Assn.

The former religious broadcaster said that if McCloskey rejects arbitration, he will take the evidence and testimony already collected to an unspecified panel of experts and have them publish an opinion on McCloskey’s contentions.

“If he doesn’t (go to arbitration), we will prove to the American people that he truly doesn’t want the truth to come out,” Robertson said.

Letter at Issue

In his letter, McCloskey wrote that he and Robertson were on the same Korea-bound troop ship in 1951, and that Robertson was taken off the vessel in Japan and assigned to a noncombat post after he told fellow Marines that his father would arrange his transfer.

McCloskey also wrote that when Robertson later was sent to Korea, he became known as the “division liquor officer” because he made frequent trips to Japan.

Robertson has denied that his father used influence to get him off the troop ship.

While campaigning in Miami on Monday, Robertson called McCloskey a “pathological liar” and charged that he had circulated the war story to hurt Robertson’s candidacy.

He also said that McCloskey is a supporter of Vice President George Bush, one of Robertson’s rivals for the GOP presidential nomination.