Judge Tells Reagan to Give Diary Entries to Poindexter

A federal judge Tuesday ordered former President Ronald Reagan to provide excerpts of his personal diaries to lawyers defending former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter against criminal charges arising from his role in the Iran-Contra scandal.

After screening diary excerpts supplied by Reagan’s attorneys, U.S. District Judge Harold H. Greene determined that they contained no proof that the former President knew that money from the sale of weapons to Iran was being diverted to support the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

However, Greene said that some of the notations could indicate that Reagan may have known of and approved other activities that form the basis of the five felony charges against Poindexter, who maintains he had specific presidential authorization for his actions.

In his ruling, Greene noted that Reagan has the right to invoke the doctrine of executive privilege as grounds for refusing to surrender the documents, but so far the former President has refrained from doing so.

Executive privilege was last cited by former President Richard M. Nixon during the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s when he unsuccessfully sought to refuse to turn over tapes of conversations with aides in the Oval Office. Reagan’s attorneys have been reluctant to cite the doctrine, possibly out of concern that the action would be compared to Nixon’s.

Instead, Reagan has sought to avoid involvement in the Poindexter case by maintaining that his information is unneeded by the court. His attorneys declined Tuesday to discuss whether they would consider citing executive privilege in light of Greene’s ruling.

In mentioning executive privilege as a possible defense, Greene did not indicate whether Reagan would be successful in using it to shield all of the documents sought by Poindexter’s attorneys.

Greene, an independent-minded judge best known for presiding over the massive antitrust case that resulted in the dismemberment of AT&T;, said he sifted through more than 100 excerpts from the Reagan diaries to identify those that would be relevant to Poindexter’s defense.

The excerpts were typed copies of Reagan’s handwritten notes. Similar information previously had been submitted to the congressional Iran-Contra committee and to special prosecutor Lawrence E. Walsh’s office.

Nevertheless, Reagan’s lawyers had urged the judge to reject Poindexter’s request for all of the diary excerpts.

Greene held a hearing earlier this month on Poindexter’s request for permission to call Reagan as a defense witness. The former President contends he is immune from having to testify by virtue of his former office. The judge has not yet ruled on that motion.

“We are pleased with the decision,” said Poindexter’s lawyer, Richard W. Beckler.

Theodore B. Olson, Reagan’s attorney, declined to comment on the decision.

Poindexter, now a retired rear admiral, is accused of two counts of obstruction of Congress, two counts of making false statements and a catch-all conspiracy charge that includes destruction and removal of documents.

In seeking the Reagan diaries, Poindexter’s lawyers asserted that the former President knew of and approved all of his activities. The defense contends that because he had specific White House approval, Poindexter had no reason to conceal his activities from Congress.

“Upon its review of the Reagan diary excerpts, the court has concluded that some, but not all, of the diary entries produced in response to various subpoena categories are relevant to the defendant’s claim,” Greene stated.

For instance, Greene cited a diary excerpt that discusses a trip Poindexter took in December, 1985, to Central America. The excerpt “includes a somewhat ambiguous comment arguably indicating that the former President knew of (Poindexter’s) activities on behalf of the Contras,” Greene said. The judge said Reagan described the trip as “successful.”

As another example, Greene said that diary entries dated April 25-26, 1985, “describe President Reagan’s apparently successful effort to persuade a Central American government (identified in earlier testimony as Honduras) to release to the Contras a shipment of arms that had been seized by the military of that nation.”

Although Greene said that the diaries included ambiguous references to the profits of arms sales to Iran, he added that “none of them sheds any light on the question of what President Reagan may have known about the diversion (of funds to the Contras).”

At the same time, Iran-Contra special prosecutor Walsh said that charges soon will be filed against additional individuals as a result of information supplied by Albert A. Hakim. The Iran-born businessman handled the finances of the “enterprise” set up to sell weapons to the Tehran government then controlled by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

“Mr. Hakim has enabled the government to investigate charges that otherwise might not have been subject to prosecution,” Walsh said in a memo to U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell, who is scheduled to sentence Hakim Thursday following his guilty plea to a single count of “supplementing the salary” of former Lt. Col. Oliver L. North with funds from the enterprise.

“It is anticipated that further prosecutions will result from Mr. Hakim’s cooperation,” Walsh said. The special prosecutor’s office refused to provide additional details.

In his testimony to a congressional Iran-Contra committee in 1987, Hakim referred to other individuals who participated in the weapons transactions and who have not yet been accused of any crime. Under the rules that governed the congressional investigation, information supplied to the committee could not be used by the prosecutor unless obtained independently.

So far, Walsh has brought charges against eight individuals. Charges were dropped against one of them, former CIA officer Joseph F. Fernandez. Five pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain with the prosecution, and North was convicted of three felonies.