North Testifies Before New Iran-Contra Grand Jury

Oliver L. North testified Friday before a newly impaneled federal grand jury that is continuing the investigation of the Iran-Contra scandal.

The former White House aide was accompanied into the grand jury room by a prosecutor from the office of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh.

North repeatedly left the secret proceedings during the day of testimony to confer with his attorneys in a courthouse hallway.

Periodic exits from grand jury proceedings enable witnesses to receive legal advice and to keep their lawyers informed about what the government is asking them.

During one break, North lawyer Brendan V. Sullivan Jr. began shouting at Iran-Contra prosecutor Craig Gillen.

“You don’t intimidate me and I don’t intimidate you,” replied Gillen, who then returned to the grand jury room. North followed a few minutes later.

Walsh’s office is trying to determine the precise roles that then-President Ronald Reagan, then-Vice President George Bush and others played in the affair, sources familiar with the investigation said in April.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said North and former national security adviser John M. Poindexter were likely to be subpoenaed and granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for their grand jury testimony.

North, 46, was convicted May 4, 1989, of aiding and abetting an obstruction of Congress, altering and destroying National Security Council documents and receiving an illegal gratuity.

An appeal is pending.