Reagan Sees Acquittals in Iran Case : Comments Raise Prospect of Pardon, Draw Criticism

President Reagan said Friday that he still considers former White House aide Oliver L. North a “hero” and predicted that North and John M. Poindexter, his former national security adviser, will be found innocent of all charges in their Iran-Contra trial.

“I don’t think they were guilty of any lawbreaking or any crime,” the President said in off-the-cuff remarks during a question-and-answer session with high school students.

The comments were his first on the merits of the case since North, Poindexter and two middlemen in the Iran arms deal, Albert A. Hakim and Richard V. Secord, were indicted by a federal grand jury on March 16. The four pleaded not guilty Thursday to all charges.

‘Some Impact on a Jury’

Legal authorities immediately criticized the President for expressing his views on a pending criminal case. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a former prosecutor, said the President had a right to express his personal opinions but added: “It might have some impact on a jury to know what the President says.”

Although Reagan refused to discuss whether he might pardon North and Poindexter either before or after a trial, his comments again raised the prospect of a pardon.

While the possibility of a pardon was raised by senior White House staff members shortly after the Iran-Contra affair was revealed, senior officials have said since then that there has been no discussion of it, and Reagan has declined all comment on the issue.

May Not Be Resolved

A CBS News-New York Times poll, released Wednesday, found the public opposed to a pardon of North before a trial by more than 2 to 1 but evenly split on whether Reagan should pardon North if he is found guilty. Reagan leaves office next Jan. 20 and it is uncertain that the case against North and Poindexter will be resolved by then.

In his meeting Friday with the students--participants in a seminar sponsored by the Center for the Study of the Presidency--Reagan was reminded that he had once called North a national hero. “Now that he has been indicted,” Reagan was asked, “are you going to pardon him and Poindexter?”

He replied: “I still think Ollie North is a hero. And, on the other hand, in any talk about what I might do or pardons and so forth, I think with the case before the courts--that’s something I can’t discuss now. But . . . I just have to believe that they’re going to be found innocent, because I don’t think they were guilty of any lawbreaking or any crime.”

Reagan said he found it difficult to think of the arms sales to Iran as the “Iran scandal.” The United States began selling arms to Iran, he said, at a time of perceived instability in Iran. And, he said, “there was great talk at that time that (the Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini was maybe not going to live out the week.”

After a lengthy explanation of the Iran affair, Reagan told the students: “I wanted you to know that I have some definite reason for still thinking that Ollie North is a hero.”

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, when asked about the President’s remarks, said: “He’s a man who tells you what he thinks and that’s what he thinks.”

Poindexter resigned as Reagan’s national security adviser in November, 1986, and North, who served on Poindexter’s staff, was fired when it was disclosed that they had spearheaded the effort to sell arms to Iran and divert profits to Nicaragua’s rebels. Poindexter is a retired Navy rear admiral and North is about to retire as a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps.

Accused of Meddling

The President’s comments on the case against Poindexter and North prompted some legal experts to suggest that Reagan was meddling in the judicial process.

“The President is instructing the jury to let them off,” said Rep. Don Edwards (D-San Jose), a member of the House Judiciary Committee. He said Reagan’s statement is “an endorsement of misconduct. . . . I am really shocked.”

A representative of the American Bar Assn. said that Reagan’s comments brought to mind the 1970 case in which President Richard M. Nixon said, before a verdict was delivered, that Charles Manson, mastermind of the Sharon Tate murders, “was guilty directly or indirectly of eight murders without reason.” Defense lawyers argued unsuccessfully for dismissal of the charges as a result of Nixon’s statement.

‘Highly Inappropriate’

Fred Wertheimer, president of Common Cause, a public policy lobbying organization, said: “That kind of comment seems to me to be highly inappropriate and highly unusual for a President of the United States to make. It’s inexplicable and unjustifiable. This is a criminal process that is ongoing.

“There’s no basis, absolutely none, for the President injecting himself into a criminal process that is being brought by the government. . . . It’s really hard to figure out what the President is doing. This leaves the impression that the President has not learned anything about the terrible events that occurred in the Iran-Contra scandal.”

Wertheimer said Reagan “seems to reject the notion that anything was wrong, despite the findings of congressional committees, the findings of the Tower Commission, the guilty pleas of people involved, the ongoing trial. It’s almost as if the President refuses to face up to what actually occurred here.”

Conduct Criticized

The Tower Commission, appointed by Reagan and headed by former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.), sharply criticized the President’s conduct during the Iran affair.

The investigation of the scandal by independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, who secured the indictments against North and Poindexter, also has resulted in guilty pleas by three other participants, including Robert C. McFarlane, Poindexter’s predecessor as Reagan’s national security adviser.

Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), a member of the House committee that investigated the scandal, said Reagan should “probably” keep silent on the matter.

“The President is a sentimental guy who just speaks from the heart,” Hyde said. “But he should say the matter is in the courts, and it’s not appropriate for me to comment on it.”

Staff writers Eric Lichtblau, David Lauter and Sara Fritz contributed to this story.