Conflict Over Secrecy Issues Postpones Iran-Contra Trial

The Justice Department on Friday obtained at least another month’s delay in the Iran-Contra trial of former CIA agent Joseph F. Fernandez while it ponders how to deal with secrecy issues in the case.

The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., granted the department’s request for a month’s time to consider whether it wanted to appeal its ruling that Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh could not intervene on secrecy issues in the Fernandez case.

The delay until Nov. 13 gives Thornburgh more time to consider how to deal with the politically touchy secrecy issues surrounding the Fernandez case.

A three-judge panel of the court ruled Sept. 29 that Thornburgh could not appeal secrecy rulings made by the trial judge because such intervention would undermine the independence of Iran-Contra prosecutor Lawrence E. Walsh.

The court held that Thornburgh’s only recourse was to file an affidavit under the Classified Information Procedures Act blocking the release of information the trial judge ruled could be disclosed in court by Fernandez’s defense lawyers. Such an action would likely result in dismissal of the charges.

The Justice Department has said such an affidavit would be filed only “as a last resort.” It had until Friday to notify the 4th Circuit of whether it wanted a re-hearing of the case by the full court in Richmond.

In the request for an extension of the filing deadline, Assistant Atty. Gen. Edward S. G. Dennis Jr. said the court’s ruling “was of substantial importance to the attorney general and the Department of Justice in addressing national security matters arising in the context of cases prosecuted by independent counsel.”

“Accordingly, it is necessary for the Department of Justice to consider what, if any, further measures are appropriate in light of the decision,” Dennis said.

Fernandez, the former CIA station chief in Costa Rica, is accused of lying to CIA superiors and to a presidential commission that investigated the Iran-Contra affair about his role in setting up an airstrip for the clandestine arms-supply network for the Nicaraguan rebels.