Fawn Hall, Two Others Named Co-Conspirators

A federal grand jury investigating the Iran-Contra affair has named former National Security Council secretary Fawn Hall, ex-NSC official Robert Earle and former CIA agent Joe Fernandez as unindicted co-conspirators, sources close to the investigation said Friday.

The action, which has been kept under court seal, allows independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh to use their testimony against all four defendants in the case--Oliver L. North, John M. Poindexter, Richard V. Secord and Albert A. Hakim. The defendants have been indicted on allegations of conspiring to divert Iran arms sale profits to Nicaragua’s Contras.

The unexpected move is legally significant, sources said, because it distinguishes Hall, Earle and Fernandez from conventional witnesses whose testimony would apply only to one defendant at a time.

As co-conspirators, their testimony would apply to all members of the alleged conspiracy, which Walsh contends was designed to defraud and commit offenses against the United States, legal authorities said.

‘Tarnishes All the Others’

Hearsay testimony from an alleged member of a conspiracy, even if unindicted, can be used against all members of the conspiracy because the witness was so close to the events. This would not be the case with a witness who was not a part of the conspiracy.

“By using statements from her (Hall) and others as witnesses, when they come in as a co-conspirator, it tarnishes all the others in the case,” one source close to the investigation said. “The statements can be used against all four conspirators.”

Walsh has reportedly granted Hall and Earle full immunity from prosecution. Hall has admitted removing classified materials from the NSC while she was North’s personal secretary, and Earle has admitted shredding documents when he was an assistant to North in the NSC’s office of politico-military affairs.

After the Iran-Contra affair was disclosed, Hall, as she testified before congressional committees last year, smuggled key documents on the NSC’s role in the affair and North’s activities in particular out of North’s office in an attempt to conceal the information from investigators.

Testimony by Earle could be particularly damaging to the defendants because, as North’s closest aide at the time North was coordinating the covert operation, he was one of only a handful of people who knew of the diversion of Iran arms proceeds to the Contras. In addition, Earle often passed messages among principals in the affair, including Poindexter and Secord.

Fernandez, former CIA chief of station in Costa Rica, communicated logistics on Contra supply airdrops to North at a time when such aid to the Nicaraguan rebels was banned by Congress. He has been accused of lying to investigators about his role in the activities.

Two Granted Immunity

Sources have said that Walsh agreed to give the immunity to Hall and Earle in exchange for their cooperation in providing testimony against the defendants. Fernandez, however, has not been granted such status and could still face charges at some point, one source close to the case said.

The independent counsel’s office refused to comment on the designation of the three unindicted co-conspirators.

Plato Cacheris, the attorney representing Hall, said: “I don’t regard her as a co-conspirator, and this is grossly unfair and incorrect.”

Earle’s lawyer, Dennis Dean Kirk, said: “I don’t comment on anything like that, thank you.”

John Stein, the attorney representing Fernandez, could not be reached for comment.

The practice of naming unindicted co-conspirators has come under increasing criticism from some legal authorities. Because they are not defendants, these authorities say, such co-conspirators are not provided the opportunity to clear their names in court.

Several Advantages

Nevertheless, the designation of Hall, Earle and Fernandez as co-conspirators will provide several advantages to the prosecution of the case under federal criminal rules, according to a federal prosecutor who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

This prosecutor noted that many of these advantages are highly technical but said that all could be tremendously beneficial to Walsh, particularly the use of otherwise inadmissible hearsay testimony.

Walsh, in documents filed in federal court in the case, has indicated that he also intends to call as witnesses a number of high government officials, including Secretary of State George P. Shultz, Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, Deputy CIA Director Robert M. Gates and Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams.

North, in a press conference in March, indicated that he might seek to call as witnesses President Reagan and Vice President George Bush.