Unrepentant Nofziger Gets 90 Days, Is Fined $30,000

Defiantly refusing to retract controversial statements made after his conviction, former presidential aide Lyn Nofziger was sentenced to 90 days in prison and fined $30,000 Friday for illegally lobbying the White House on behalf of a labor union and two defense contractors, one of them scandal-rocked Wedtech Corp.

U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Flannery pronounced the sentence one week after independent counsel James C. McKay had urged that Nofziger be imprisoned because he had shown “a total lack of remorse and contrition” after a jury convicted him on three felony counts on Feb. 11.

Nofziger, who had likened the offenses he was charged with to “running a stop sign,” stood before Flannery in a jammed courtroom and said: “I cannot show remorse because I do not believe I am guilty of the offenses with which I am charged . . . . I am an honorable man.”

After listening to the sentence impassively, Nofziger--President Reagan’s former political director and longtime confidant--hugged his wife, Bonnie, and two daughters. Then, in talking to reporters, he accused McKay of lies and exaggerations.

“He has gone out of his way to try to get me,” Nofziger said of the special prosecutor. “I don’t think he’s an honorable man.”

McKay said he was “very satisfied” with the sentence, which allows Nofziger to remain free pending an appeal. A source close to McKay added later: “I feel sorry for Mr. Nofziger. It doesn’t reflect well on him to make those comments.”

Has Reagans’ Prayers

President and Mrs. Reagan said in a statement from their ranch near Santa Barbara, Calif.: “Lyn Nofziger is a dear friend of many years, and our prayers are with him.”

In addressing Flannery, Nofziger had said: “I am distressed if I have embarrassed my family and my friends and my President.”

Shortly after Nofziger’s conviction, prosecution and defense lawyers speculated that he would not receive a prison sentence because of his age, 63, his previously clean record and the fact that he had had a stroke in 1982.

The picture changed quickly, however, when Nofziger made his stop-sign remark and, in a letter to the court on Feb. 18, said: “I have never thought, and I do not think today, that I am guilty morally, ethically or legally of the crime of which I am convicted.”

Prosecutor Urged Jail Term

McKay seized on those statements and recommended in a memo to Flannery last week that Nofziger be fined and imprisoned.

McKay argued that stiff penalties are needed to demonstrate that the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, which restricts lobbying by former high-level government officials such as Nofziger, should “be taken seriously.”

Nofziger told reporters after he was sentenced: “I suppose, if I had been contrite, I might have avoided a prison term, but I am not going to be contrite when I don’t think I have done anything.”

Robert Plotkin, one of Nofziger’s attorneys, said that, although he was disappointed by the sentence, “I think the judge did a good job trying to balance the symbol that Mr. Nofziger has become against the man that Mr. Nofziger is.”

A prosecution source, who asked not to be identified, said that “any jail time in this situation is remarkable.”

Mickey Mouse Necktie

Nofziger, appearing before Flannery in a characteristically rumpled suit and loosened necktie from his Mickey Mouse collection, reiterated his belief that “I have done nothing ethically, morally or legally wrong.”

“While I know there are those in this courtroom who believe that I should be sent to prison unless I come here today and plead guilt, express remorse and ask forgiveness,” he said, “I cannot do that if I am to be true to myself and to those hundreds of fine people all over the country who have supported me in recent months because they believe I am an honorable man.”

Nofziger admitted “making mistakes” and “doing stupid things” but asserted: “I am not a criminal . . . . I am not a scofflaw.”

In alluding to McKay’s charge that he had become a lobbyist in 1982 to “cash in” on his White House connections, Nofziger said: “I have never set out to hurt my fellow man in order to cash in on my ability to inflict personal hurt.”

‘Set Out to Get Me’

He told reporters later: “I think the independent counsel set out to get me because I wouldn’t knuckle under to him, because I would not cop a plea, because I would not say I was remorseful, because I thought I was innocent.”

Nofziger accused McKay of repeatedly lying in his closing argument to the jury. He charged also that McKay, in his presentencing memo to the judge, deliberately misrepresented Nofziger’s stop-sign remark and had exaggerated an incident in which Nofziger’s attorneys allegedly warned him against lobbying former colleagues at the White House.

Law Called Unfair

Nofziger again attacked the Ethics in Government Act, calling it unfair because its lobbying restrictions do not apply to former judges, members of Congress or lower-level administrators.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who wants to toughen the law, said that Nofziger’s sentence “sends a strong message” that the statute is meaningful.

“Nofziger was wrong when he compared his conduct to running a stop sign,” Levin said. “Serving three months in federal prison is quite different from paying a traffic ticket.”

Nofziger was the first former government official tried and convicted under the act. Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Michael K. Deaver was investigated for possible violations related to his lobbying activities but was convicted last year on related perjury charges instead.

Ban on Lobbying

The law prohibits former government officials from lobbying ex-colleagues for one year on matters of “direct and substantial interest” to their former agencies. Nofziger was charged with illegally lobbying the White House on an engine contract for Wedtech, on airplane funding for Fairchild Republic Corp. and on civilian manning of naval ships for a maritime labor union.

Nofziger received the maximum $30,000 fine but could have been given six years in prison instead of 90 days. If he were to violate probation, he could serve an additional three to 21 months under the sentence.

Letters praising Nofziger’s character were sent to Flannery by 62 Cabinet officials, members of Congress and others, including several Democrats who noted that they hardly embrace Nofziger’s Republican conservatism.

“I have the utmost respect and admiration for my friend Lyn’s integrity, truthfulness and commitment to lawful and judicial processes,” John C. White, former Democratic Party chairman, wrote.

“Beneath the scruffy and disheveled exterior,” former Sen. Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.) said of Nofziger, “is an incredibly decent and compassionate individual.”