McFarlane Gets Probation and $20,000 Fine

Former national security adviser Robert C. McFarlane was given a suspended sentence and fined $20,000 Friday for misleading Congress with assurances that Oliver L. North was obeying its ban on helping the Nicaraguan rebels.

The former Marine lieutenant colonel became the first Iran-Contra figure to be punished for his role in the affair. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Aubrey E. Robinson Jr. for his guilty pleas to four misdemeanor charges of withholding information from Congress.

Robinson suspended imposition of any prison term and instead placed McFarlane on two years’ probation and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service during that time. McFarlane could have received a maximum prison term of four years and a $400,000 fine.

‘Honorable Man’

Robinson imposed the sentence and fine with little comment after McFarlane’s attorney, Leonard Garment, called his client “an honorable man.”

“The public servants in this country are not to be found to be more decent and more honorable,” Garment told the judge. “His actions were taken out of a high sense of duty, a strong sense of serving his country’s interests.”

“He stood up and rendered a faithful accounting of his public responsibilities when called upon to do so,” Garment said, referring to McFarlane’s admission in court that he misled Congress about the Iran-Contra affair.

McFarlane, in his characteristic emotionless monotone, told Robinson, “Clearly, the episode in our history has rendered enormous turmoil on our country’s processes.”

“To the extent that I contributed to that, I regret it,” McFarlane said of his role in the Iran-Contra affair. “I tried to serve my country.”

The judge did not elaborate on the reason for his sentence, except to say that “the nature of the offense and the totality of the circumstances” required him to impose a $5,000 fine for each of the four counts.

Robinson said he would make further recommendations about the type of community service he wants McFarlane to complete during the two years of probation.

Independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh did not oppose Garment’s request for a suspended sentence. Outside the U.S. Courthouse, Walsh told reporters that his office “made no recommendation” on the sentence and declined further comment.

As he left the courthouse, McFarlane said he has “strong faith and a terrific wife and a free country. I am looking to the future. That’s all I have to say.”

He had looked tense as he entered the courtroom, walking hand in hand with his wife, Jonda.

North on Trial

Robinson said he had carefully read the extensive submissions, including a statement by McFarlane, that were filed with him but were not on the public record.

The sentencing occurred in the same courthouse where North, McFarlane’s former aide, is standing trial on 12 felony counts arising from his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair.

McFarlane is expected to be a key prosecution witness against North and had asked to be sentenced by Robinson before he testifies in the Iran-Contra trial.

On March 11, 1988, McFarlane pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress and agreed to cooperate with independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh’s investigation of the Iran-Contra affair.

McFarlane admitted writing three letters in 1985 assuring two House committees that North was not helping raise money for the Nicaraguan Contras or providing military assistance in defiance of a ban on such aid that was imposed by Congress.

McFarlane admitted to a fourth count of misleading the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Dec. 8, 1986, by denying any knowledge of efforts to solicit money from foreign countries to help the Contras after Congress cut off U.S. military aid.

Accused of Drafting Letters

Among the 12 felony charges against North are allegations that he drafted the three 1985 letters for McFarlane’s signature that were sent to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Western Hemisphere affairs.

In opening statements at North’s trial on Feb. 22, defense lawyer Brendan V. Sullivan Jr. complained that the former National Security Council aide “is charged with crimes for letters that his boss sent.”

“McFarlane decided to write them, but the government wants you to convict Oliver L. North for them,” Sullivan said, suggesting that McFarlane faces tough cross-examination when he testifies against North.

Prosecutor John W. Keker told jurors in his opening statement that McFarlane “is still reluctant to take the responsibility for what happened” and “is going to blame Oliver North for lying to him.”

Each of the four misdemeanor charges to which McFarlane pleaded guilty carried a maximum one-year prison term and a fine of up to $100,000.

Response Letters

Two letters that McFarlane wrote to the House intelligence committee on Sept. 5, 1985, and Oct. 7, 1985, were in response to the panel’s inquiries about news reports that North was helping raise money for the Contras and was providing military advice.

In one letter, McFarlane wrote: “I can state with deep personal conviction that at no time did I or any member of the National Security Council staff violate the letter or the spirit of the law.

“We did not solicit funds or other support for military or paramilitary activities either from Americans or third parties,” he wrote.

Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.), the intelligence committee’s former chairman, testified as the first witness in North’s trial, telling jurors that he relied on the information that McFarlane gave him.

“I certainly relied upon the information given to me by the national security adviser of the President,” Hamilton testified. “I thought that information was accurate, honest and correct.”

McFarlane, who tried to commit suicide in 1987 by taking an overdose of a tranquilizer, played a major role in the Iran-Contra affair after resigning as Reagan’s national security adviser in late 1985. He led a secret mission to Tehran in 1986 in an unsuccessful attempt to trade weapons for U.S. hostages. He carried a key-shaped cake and a Bible signed by President Reagan.

He also testified without immunity from prosecution during the televised congressional hearings on the Iran-Contra affair in 1987.