Poindexter Gets 6 Months : No Fine for Contragate Admiral Who Lied to Congress : First in Case to Be Given Prison Time

John M. Poindexter was sentenced today to six months in prison for lying to Congress to conceal key details of the Iran-Contra scandal when he was President Ronald Reagan’s national security adviser.

Poindexter showed no emotion as he stood before the judge for sentencing, saying only, “Your Honor, I don’t have any comment.” He then became the first Iran-Contra defendant sentenced to prison.

U.S. District Judge Harold H. Greene told the retired Navy admiral that imprisonment was necessary to deter other public officials from lying while conducting governmental business.

Greene said a sentence without incarceration “would be tantamount to a statement that to lie to and to obstruct Congress was of no great moment.”

“Adm. Poindexter and his associates obstructed the Congress--nullifying the decisions that body had made” by cutting off direct military aid to Nicaraguan Contras, Greene said.

Greene did not impose a fine and said Poindexter can remain free while he appeals the five felony convictions of making false statements to Congress and obstructing the inquiries of lawmakers into the Iran-Contra scandal.

At the end of the hearing, Poindexter kissed his wife, Linda, an Episcopal priest who wore her clerical collar, and the couple walked out of the courtroom.

Afterward, Prosecutor Dan K. Webb said the result “was a very fair and very proper sentence.” Webb said it will send a message to other public officials “that when you serve in high government office with that responsibility that you must do so with the highest levels of integrity and modesty.”

The judge made it clear that he felt that Poindexter’s crimes were serious, rejecting a defense argument that the retired Navy officer’s 33 years of service to the government should weigh against incarceration.

“With all due respect to the distinguished military records of Adm. Poindexter” and other Iran-Contra defendants, he said, “they had no standing in a democratic society to ignore the decisions of elected officials.”

Greene noted that under federal sentencing guidelines, which do not affect this case because they took effect after the Iran-Contra affair, Poindexter would have been sentenced to 21 months to 27 months for the five felonies.

But the judge said he would not force Poindexter, 53, to serve such a lengthy sentence while six other Iran-Contra co-defendants had received terms of probation.

He also noted that Poindexter “conducted his defense in a responsible but not a dishonest or disruptive manner,” an apparent reference to Lt. Col. Oliver L. North’s trial tactics two years ago.

Without naming North, Greene said that, “unlike other defendants, Poindexter did not take the stand to exculpate himself by lying under oath.”

While Poindexter’s lawyers argued that he had suffered enough and should not be sent to prison, Chief Prosecutor Lawrence E. Walsh argued that Poindexter’s role as a top-ranking official was different from those of the other Iran-Contra defendants, including North.