Pardons ‘Not Discussed,’ Top White House Aide Says

In the wake of indictments against four central figures in the Iran-Contra scandal, including former White House aides John M. Poindexter and Oliver L. North, a top White House official said Wednesday that the possibility of granting presidential pardons has “not been discussed here at all.”

White House Communications Director Tom Griscom, asked about speculation that President Reagan would grant such pardons before he leaves office next January, said that the matter “hasn’t been ruled in or ruled out.”

Another spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, said that Reagan “had no response” when he was informed of the latest development in his presidency’s worst political crisis. “It’s a matter before the court,” Fitzwater said. “We won’t have any reaction to the indictments themselves.”

Minimizes McFarlane Plea

However, shortly before the charges were filed, Reagan appeared to minimize the related guilty plea entered last Friday by former national security adviser Robert C. McFarlane on four misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress. “He just pleaded guilty to not telling Congress everything it wanted to know. I’ve done that myself,” he said. But Reagan, who has contended that he knows of no laws being broken in the Iran-Contra affair, hastened to add, “Now don’t distort that . . . I just think Congress would like to be asking questions about almost anything, anytime.”

Meanwhile, leading Democrats used the latest indictments to serve notice that the Iran-Contra scandal will be a major issue in this year’s presidential election, especially with Vice President George Bush expected to be the Republican nominee.

“The question you have to ask is, if all these things are true, can you really believe George Bush didn’t know what was going on?” House Democratic Whip Tony Coelho of Merced said.

Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, said: “Whatever the outcome of these prosecutions, I think the special prosecutor has given us fresh evidence that the Reagan Administration generally has put the Constitution of the United States through the shredder . . . . This will be an important issue in the campaign.”

‘Fall Guys,’ Jackson Says

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, another Democratic candidate, said that the indictments were “a source of embarrassment to this Administration and a disgrace to our country,” but he called those indicted “the fall guys.”

“They were, in fact, implementing this Administration’s policy,” he said.

A spokesman said that Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, yet another Democratic hopeful, believes “the indictments underscore the importance of the need to respect the law . . . . Obviously, we’ll have to see what the outcome of legal proceedings will be.”

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, who earlier this month blasted Bush for his role in the Administration’s arms-for-hostages dealings with Iran, had no comment after the indictments Wednesday.

Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), chairman of the House Iran-Contra committee, said the indictments closely paralleled conclusions reached by House and Senate panels after joint hearings last summer.

But he noted that independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh’s access to Swiss banking records, which were withheld from the congressional inquiry, allowed prosecutors to place “more of an emphasis on misuse of funds, the conversion, embezzlement and stealing of funds than I might have anticipated.”

‘Choking on Gnats’

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a leading critic of the congressional inquiries, charged that the indictments “amount to the government choking on gnats of the technicalities of the laws.”

“This trial is going to be a colossal embarrassment to our government,” he predicted.

Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Tex.), a member of the House panel, said the indictments make clear that “these are not the actions of American heroes.”

The comment was an apparent slap at Reagan’s characterization of North as “a national hero” when the scandal broke in November, 1986.