21 Picked as Judge Begins to Fill Jury Pool for Poindexter Trial

Twenty-one people, including a lawyer who worked for the Bush presidential campaign, were chosen as prospective jurors Monday for the Iran-Contra trial of former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter.

Poindexter is charged with five felony counts--one of conspiracy, two of obstructing Congress and two of making false statements to congressional committees--in connection with accusations that he covered up Oliver L. North’s secret Contra resupply network and lied about a 1985 shipment of Hawk missiles to Iran.

U.S. District Judge Harold H. Greene disqualified 76 people from a pool of 206 because they said they had heard or read some of Poindexter’s 1987 congressional testimony.

Seventeen of the first 21 in the pool were women. Jury selection is to continue today.

The judge approved for the jury pool a real-estate lawyer who worked in President Bush’s campaign as part of a group doing background reviews of potential vice presidential candidates. Bush was President Ronald Reagan’s vice president at the time.

Poindexter’s lawyers are expected to replay Reagan’s videotaped testimony in court.

Most of those questioned said they knew little about the Iran-Contra affair.

Each of the charges against Poindexter could carry a maximum five-year prison term and $250,000 fine on conviction.