Judge Tells Poindexter Jury to Ignore Politics of Case

Jurors Monday began to deliberate the guilt or innocence of John M. Poindexter, former President Ronald Reagan’s national security adviser, after a federal judge instructed them to ignore the politics of the Iran-Contra affair in reaching their verdict.

Deflating the defense’s contention that the retired rear admiral was the target of a political vendetta by Reagan’s opponents, U.S. District Judge Harold H. Greene told the jury that it must confine itself to the five criminal counts in the indictment and not stray into questions of policy and politics.

Poindexter, the highest-ranking official of the Reagan Administration to go on trial in the scandal, is charged with obstructing Congress, lying to Congress and conspiring with former Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North and others to cover up the White House role in the affair. If found guilty, he would face the possibility of a sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count.

“It is not your function, or the court’s,” Greene told the jury in his hourlong instructions, “to decide whether President Reagan’s commitment to assist the Contras in Nicaragua was the correct policy for the United States. . . . On the same basis, you are also not called upon to decide whether the President’s policy toward Iran and the American hostages kept in Lebanon was a wise or an unwise policy. Those questions are left to the elected representatives of the people in the legislative and executive branches, and ultimately to the citizens who vote in elections, not to judges and juries.”

This admonition appeared to strike at one of the key arguments of the defense. In his final plea to the jury last Friday, defense attorney Richard W. Beckler insisted that political opponents of Reagan, too weak and fearful to attack the former President on his Nicaragua and Iran policies, had hunted Poindexter instead and concocted a phony case against him.

After listening to the instructions, the jurors retired to a deliberation room and elected Wayne M. Mitchell, a 25-year-old medical insurance claims agent, as their foreman.

In its first request to the judge, the jury sent out word that it would like copies of the indictments, the exhibits in the trial and the judge’s instructions.

The five counts against Poindexter stem from an alleged attempt by the former national security adviser, North and others to cover up the politically embarrassing Iran-Contra affair. Following a policy that became public only late in 1986, Reagan Administration officials sold arms to Iran in hopes of freeing American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon. They diverted some profits from these sales to pay for military supplies to the Contras who were waging a guerrilla war against the Marxist government in Nicaragua.

In his instructions to the jury, Greene also addressed Reagan’s videotaped testimony for the trial. Although Reagan sometimes appeared confused and forgetful, he apparently wanted to leave the impression with the jury that he still had full confidence in Poindexter.

Greene told the jury that “it would not be a defense that the President, directly or indirectly, instructed or authorized him (Poindexter) to violate the law in the pursuit of his policies. The instructions or orders of a superior do not constitute a defense to crime.”

Regardless, Greene said, Reagan stated that he had encouraged Poindexter to stay within the law. “And defense further claims,” Greene said, “that he did just that.”