Secord Expected to Plead Guilty in Plea Bargain

Attorneys for retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord have negotiated a plea bargain with federal prosecutors on the 12 criminal charges against Secord in the Iran-Contra case, it was learned Tuesday.

Secord, who was Oliver L. North’s chief logistical assistant in supplying weapons to the Nicaraguan rebels, is expected to enter a guilty plea as early as this morning, barring a last-minute legal snag, before Chief U.S. District Judge Aubrey E. Robinson Jr.

As part of the agreement negotiated less than a week before Secord was to go to trial, Secord would cooperate in future investigations, sources familiar with the discussions said. His plea could influence another Iran-Contra figure, Albert A. Hakim, to agree to a similar plea, according to the sources.

Hakim was Secord’s former business colleague in overseas operations directed by North. He is the only major Iran-Contra defendant without a scheduled trial date.

Secord, 56, is expected to plead guilty to at least one felony and receive a government recommendation for leniency from the office of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, based on his future cooperation, sources said. Walsh and his staff have been investigating the scandal for more than two years.

Secord is currently facing charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and payment of illegal gratuities in connection with his work in 1985 and 1986 for North, the convicted former White House aide.

North’s one-time superior, former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter, is scheduled for trial starting Jan. 22. He is charged with conspiracy, obstruction of congressional inquiries and making false statements in connection with his support of Contras in 1985 and 1986, after Congress had banned all direct and indirect military assistance to the Nicaraguan rebel forces.

A plea by Secord also could lead to his testifying as a prosecution witness in Poindexter’s case, the sources said. Secord’s plea, in the short run, would keep the public from learning additional details about the Iran-Contra affair. However, the trial of Poindexter in January is likely to produce an abundance of new material because of his former high position at the White House, the sources said.

It is likely that Walsh’s prosecutors will submit a summary of what they were prepared to prove at Secord’s trial, which should provide the public with some new information, according to sources.

Based on the disposition of past cases, Secord could reasonably expect to avoid a prison term. North, convicted of three felonies last May after a three-month trial, received a three-year suspended sentence, a fine of $150,000 and was ordered to perform 1,200 hours of community service in a drug-awareness program for inner-city youths.

Robert C. McFarlane, who preceded Poindexter as national security adviser, also escaped a prison term after pleading guilty to four misdemeanor charges of misleading Congress about the Iranian arms scandal. McFarlane last March received a suspended two-year sentence and was fined $20,000.

Secord has shown signs of stress in recent months, when he has twice been convicted of drunken driving in suburban Virginia, where he lives. Associates said he also has been concerned about his rising legal bills.

Secord, along with North, Poindexter and Hakim, was first indicted in March, 1988, for allegedly diverting more than $14 million in Iranian arms sale proceeds to the Nicaraguan rebels.

That conspiracy charge, however, was subsequently dropped against North, Poindexter and Secord on grounds that its proof, and their right to defend against it, would require public disclosure of certain national security documents that should continue to remain secret.

Secord also was charged with giving an illegal gratuity to North, a public official, by providing him with a $13,800 home security system at a time when the two were working together for the White House. Secord was North’s chief logistical assistant in making secret arms sales to Iran and in supplying the Nicaraguan Contras with proceeds from those sales and with weapons needed to fight the left-wing Sandinista government.

The government charged that Secord, with the help of Hakim, his Iranian-born business partner, established foreign bank accounts for the overseas arms sales and later transferred certain sums for their personal use.

Last April, a new indictment was returned against Secord by a federal grand jury here. It charged that he perjured himself in congressional testimony in 1987 to conceal the profits he made from selling arms to Iran and to the Contras in Nicaragua.

The new indictment accused Secord of withholding from Senate and House investigating committees “the true facts” about his receipt and disbursement of funds in the Iran-Contra case, and of “providing false, evasive and misleading evidence” to the committees.