Not Ruled Out, President Now Says of Pardons

One day after indicating that pardons for former aides Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter were unlikely, President Reagan told reporters Tuesday that he has made no final decision on the matter.

The President made his latest disclosure on the politically sensitive question when he was asked whether he has “definitely ruled out a pardon” for the two former White House officials, who played central roles in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Reagan, pausing at the end of a White House ceremony, responded to the question with a distinct “no” before crossing a hallway and returning to the Oval Office. He made no other comment on the subject after the event, at which he presented the Medal of Freedom to Lord Carrington of Britain, who is retiring as secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, pressed for an amplification of Reagan’s remark, said: “It means there’s been no decision. I can’t clarify. You’ve got a yes and a no.”

On Monday, Reagan told syndicated columnist Carl Rowan that he does not believe in granting pardons before a trial, according to a White House transcript.

“You can’t consider that, Carl, until this case has been closed, whichever way it’s going to go. To pardon somebody before trial leaves a sense of guilt around them, a cloud of guilt for the rest of time,” Reagan was quoted as saying. The President had said previously that he did not think the two would be found guilty.

Then, apparently referring to the likelihood that the trial of North, Poindexter and two others indicted in the Iran-Contra affair would not be completed before his term ends on Jan. 20, 1989, Reagan added in his luncheon interview with Rowan: “And so, this is something that I don’t have to face.”

Not ‘Definitive Word’

On Monday, after Rowan summarized Reagan’s comments, Fitzwater said that he did not believe that the remarks represented “a definitive word on pardons.” Without speaking with Reagan about the matter, he interpreted the President’s comments as “a way of dismissing the issue at this point.”

On Tuesday, after Reagan issued his terse “no” in response to the question about the pardons, Fitzwater passed a cluster of reporters and said: “I told you it wasn’t definitive.” He then went to the Oval Office, determined that Reagan had understood the shouted question and said that the President had given the answer he intended.

But another senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he had seen no indication that Reagan had shifted from his position of opposing any action on pardons before the legal process has run its course.

Played Central Roles

Poindexter, a retired Navy rear admiral, was Reagan’s assistant for national security affairs, and North, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, was an aide to Poindexter. They played central roles in the shipment of arms to Iran, in an effort to free Americans believed to be held hostage by pro-Iranian factions in Lebanon, and the diversion of funds from those sales to the Nicaragua rebels.

North, Poindexter and two others--Richard V. Secord and Albert A. Hakim, who were identified as middlemen in the Iran-Contra effort--were indicted by a federal grand jury on March 16 and have pleaded not guilty. Each was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States.