North Trial Judge Refuses to Compel Reagan to Testify

Rejecting efforts to compel Ronald Reagan to appear as a witness in the Iran-Contra trial, a federal judge ruled Friday that defendant Oliver L. North “has wholly failed” to show why he needs the former President’s testimony.

In a later action, U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell also denied North’s motions to dismiss charges in the case, leaving North to begin his defense Monday against 12 felony counts in the case.

North’s lawyers, who had wanted to make Reagan their first witness, have estimated that they will complete their arguments in three to nine days, but it is not clear what effect the judge’s ruling will have on that timetable.

Gesell’s ruling on a Reagan trial appearance represents a severe setback for the defense. It had centered its case on the assertion that North, a former National Security Council aide, had the blessings of his superiors when he helped engineer the scheme that sold arms to Iran and diverted part of the profits to the rebels in Nicaragua, while misleading Congress about the Administration’s Contra support activities.

In quashing the defense subpoena of Reagan, the judge said: “While there is understandable public interest in what a President may have known or may have done, the focus of North’s trial does not involve any necessity for such a generalized inquiry.”

Both the Justice Department and Reagan’s personal attorney had argued strenuously against requiring the former President’s testimony, citing executive privilege and the danger of having national security secrets exposed on the witness stand.

Reagan, in a television interview in Rancho Mirage, Calif., said that he adamantly opposed testifying at the trial. “I made up my mind I wasn’t going,” Reagan said. “I think it would have set a precedent that the next President doesn’t have a right to impose on other Presidents. No President has ever been subpoenaed.”

On Jan. 27, Gesell declared that he had “the naked power” to force both Reagan and President Bush to testify. And some legal sources close to both sides of the case believed that North’s attorneys, in recent cross-examination of key prosecution witnesses, had established stronger grounds for compelling Reagan’s appearance.

In his five-page ruling Friday, however, Gesell said he had concluded that the core contention by the defense that North was following implicit presidential orders was not sufficient to require Reagan to address the issue personally in court.

“Whether or not authorization is a defense, authorization is not established by atmosphere, surmise or inference,” he said. “. . .The trial record presently contains no proof that defendant North ever received any authorization from President Reagan to engage in the illegal conduct alleged, either directly or indirectly, orally or in writing.”

Gesell’s ruling did not mention whether he would allow any other form of testimony from Reagan. He had been considering whether to have Reagan submit written answers to questions or whether to videotape his testimony.

The judge also had considered allowing parts of Reagan’s diary to be admitted as evidence. But he said in his order that he has read “references . . . to portions” of the diary and concluded that “nothing there remotely supports an authorization claim.”

‘No Evidence’

During about an hour of arguments over whether to dismiss the charges against North, his attorney, Barry Simon, asserted that there is “no evidence” that North had obstructed investigations of the Iran-Contra affair and there was “no basis” for the jury to conclude that the former Marine had lied.

The motions were dismissed by Gesell, who said: “The court is satisfied that all 12 counts must go to the jury at this stage.”

The charges against North allege that he lied to Congress and obstructed inquiries into the scandal, which came to light in November, 1986. He is charged with destroying official documents, defrauding the government and illegally accepting a $13,800 security system at his suburban Virginia home. If convicted, North faces a maximum of 60 years in prison and $3 million in fines.