North’s Trial Mired in New Secrets Dispute

Attorneys for the Justice Department, locked in a new dispute with a federal judge over the handling of state secrets for the trial of former White House aide Oliver L. North, said Wednesday night that they would challenge the judge’s refusal to establish more precise guidelines for such material.

The court appeal, to be filed this morning, could further delay impaneling a jury for the trial of the former National Security Council official.

A day of renewed bickering over how to handle classified information at the trial began when Justice Department officials filed court papers complaining that rules announced in December by U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell for dealing with it were so loose that North’s defense lawyers could compromise national secrets without advance warning to government security analysts.

They asked Gesell to impose more specific curbs on what evidence North’s lawyers might introduce to defend him.

Hearing Is Tense

But Gesell, during a tense 75-minute hearing in open court Wednesday, rebuked Justice Department attorneys for waiting so long to raise such serious concerns, saying that he had invited Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh months ago to take part in pretrial discussions about classified material.

Thornburgh, who heads a team of inter-agency security experts, determined last month that the government could not provide sensitive documents needed to try the primary charges of conspiracy and theft against North and independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh asked that they be dropped.

North remains charged with 12 counts, including destruction of documents and giving false statements to Congress and a presidential board of inquiry. What the Justice Department claimed Wednesday is that still more secrets might be at risk if the trial proceeds.

In a filing signed by Edward S. G. Dennis Jr., chief of the department’s criminal division, the Bush Administration said that Gesell had failed to establish “clear procedural rules” before trial. It added sharply that “the court has apparently concluded that the United States therefore must accept risks” that North will disclose classified material not relevant to the trial.

North Criticized

The filing charged further that North “has made no effort to assist the court in dealing responsibly with classified information.” It represented harsh criticism of North, a man once cleared to handle top-secret documents who was praised by President Bush and once hailed by former President Ronald Reagan as “a national hero.”

Walsh, although concurring last month in Thornburgh’s determination that the core charges against North would have to be abandoned on national security grounds, disagreed with the latest claims by the Justice Department.

In a separate filing, Walsh said that he supports Gesell’s previous orders dealing with classified information according to specific categories.

And while he believed some clarification of the orders would be desirable, Walsh declared: “We’re ready to go to trial, and we don’t want delays.”

Gesell told Dennis and his deputy, Stephen Saltzburg, that they can either accept the rules he has established or they can prohibit the use altogether of certain classified information. The second option could block North’s trial if Gesell decided that the prohibited information were essential.

“I’m going to stay out of your turf--but I’m not going to let you run mine,” Gesell said sternly.

“I want to do my level best to protect the national security secrets, but I want to do even more to give this man (North) a fair trial. . . . I’m going to get a fair trial, or we won’t have a trial.”

Gesell served notice that he plans to impanel a 12-member jury and six alternates today from a final pool of 45 prospective jurors. Opening statements in the trial by prosecutors and defense attorneys would follow, he said.

Staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this story.