North’s Last Pretrial Challenges Rejected

U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell on Friday rejected the last of Oliver L. North’s pretrial challenges to charges against him in the Iran-Contra scandal.

But the Reagan Administration’s decision not to allow North to use 40,000 pages of secret documents sought as defense evidence still poses a serious obstacle to going forward with the major charges against the fired National Security Council staff member.

Gesell rejected defense motions to dismiss charges that North obstructed congressional investigations of reports that he gave covert military assistance to the Contras in Nicaragua at a time when Congress had banned official U.S. military aid.

14 of 16 Charges Upheld

Gesell’s rulings have upheld 14 of the 16 charges originally brought against North by independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh.

About 90% of the classified material that North sought pertains to the broad conspiracy charge that North and his three co-defendants illegally diverted to the Contras more than $14 million in profits from U.S. arms sales to Iran.

The rest involves 12 other counts, particularly charges that North lied to Congress and destroyed NSC documents to obstruct an inquiry of the Iran-Contra affair.

Gesell has said repeatedly that North should be given wide latitude to introduce secret documents relevant to defending the conspiracy charge and a related count of theft of government property.

May Dismiss Charges

The judge has threatened to dismiss those charges if secret documents he determines are necessary to North’s defense are not made available by the government for use at a public trial.

On Thursday, President Reagan ruled out pardoning North but said “duty requires” him to withhold secret documents from the trial.

Reagan denied that the decision was a backdoor maneuver to let North off the hook on the major charges.

Walsh contends that North does not need to disclose any secrets to get a fair trial.

Gesell’s decisions on the dismissal motions were released as he presided over a third straight day of closed hearings on North’s objections to censoring portions of 395 government documents that Walsh wants to use as evidence. The secret hearings were scheduled to resume Tuesday.

Gesell gave North until Dec. 19 to specify any other secrets he considers important for his defense, including information that might be elicited when high government officials are questioned on the witness stand.

North and his co-defendants--former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter and arms dealers Albert A. Hakim and Richard V. Secord--are to be tried separately.