Frustrated Walsh Held Set to Take Administration to Court to Get Data : Iran-Contra: The independent counsel’s action to get potential evidence could prove politically troubling for the President.

Independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh believes that the Bush Administration is attempting to delay and block his access to documents critical to completing the Iran-Contra investigation, sources familiar with his thinking said Thursday.

Walsh is known to regard alleged attempts by the White House and Justice Department to curtail his investigation as “an ironic” contrast to the forthcoming attitude of the Ronald Reagan Administration, which was deeply involved in the case.

In conversations with associates, Walsh has vowed not to be deterred and to take the Administration to court to pry loose the potential evidence.

Documents Walsh has been seeking for as long as six months include some involving the possible role of former Vice President Bush’s office in efforts to secretly supply the Nicaraguan rebels.

Trying to obtain the documents through court action could delay the scheduled spring completion of the investigation. More politically troubling for President Bush, such action could entangle his Administration in the scandal that plagued its predecessor.

A Justice Department spokesman insisted Thursday that it has been cooperating with Walsh’s office but declined to discuss the specifics of Walsh’s complaints “because of our respect for the confidentiality of the investigative process.”

C. Boyden Gray, Bush’s counsel, did not respond to questions about his decision to hire outside council to handle Walsh’s request for documents--a move that some have interpreted as indicating that the procedure does not have high priority at the White House. The attorney, Dennis Osterman of Bethesda, Md., did not return a call.

“People in the present Administration may have been peripheral” in the secret effort to sell arms to the Iranians and divert proceeds to support the Contras,” said a source. “But they (Administration officials) are being drawn into a pattern of resistance to the law.”

Among the documents Walsh is known to be seeking are materials involving Donald P. Gregg, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea and a 30-year CIA veteran who was foreign policy adviser to Bush when the President served as vice president under Reagan.

At his confirmation hearing last year, Gregg told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he “never discussed the Contras” with Bush. He added he was not aware of the illegal supply operation, although he talked frequently with former National Security Council aide Oliver L. North and others who were deeply involved in it.

But documents sought by the Senate committee at that time from the National Security Council, the CIA and the State Department were withheld. Walsh is believed to be seeking some of the same documents, along with related materials.

Jack Sears, a spokesman for Gregg at the embassy in Seoul, said that the ambassador “doesn’t have any comment. That’s been his response to inquiries.” Gregg’s lawyer, Judah Best, did not return a call for comment.

Walsh also is understood to be seeking government documents relating to the knowledge and statements of Elliott Abrams, former assistant secretary of state for Latin American affairs, about Contra aid.

W. DeVier Pierson, Abrams’ attorney, said that he had closed his file on the matter because he has had no inquiries from Walsh’s office in “a long, long time.”

Sources familiar with Walsh’s inquiry, which is being conducted with the aid of a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia, said that it had not reached the stage where notification would be sent to individuals who are potential targets of the investigation.

It is understood that Walsh also is seeking materials on former CIA officials who may have had knowledge or involvement in the diversion of funds from the arms sales.

Walsh is said to be aware that the stiffening of the Administration’s attitude comes at a time when his inquiry is under criticism because the investigation already has taken nearly four years and costs have exceeded $21.1 million.

The sources familiar with Walsh’s thinking said that he was particularly stung by the White House decision to downgrade his document requests by retaining an outside attorney, rather than having them handled by the White House counsel’s office, which carries more clout for dealings inside government.

Walsh regards this as “judgment tilting in favor of non-disclosure,” a sharp departure from Reagan’s decision to name David M. Abshire, who was retiring as North Atlantic Treaty Organization ambassador, to serve with Cabinet rank as special counsel on Iran-Contra matters.

As a result, an oral agreement to turn over material from Bush’s vice presidential office to investigators has been replaced “with very shallow, obstructionist tactics,” one source said. “They’re asking him to begin all over and work out guidelines as if that had not been done before.”

“They’re throwing in an insulation between the people with the power and the knowledge and Walsh,” said a source who has discussed the matter with him.

The Iran-Contra inquiry so far has resulted in these convictions and guilty pleas:

--Oliver L. North, for altering and destroying documents, accepting an illegal gratuity and aiding and abetting in the obstruction of Congress. Sentenced to a three-year suspended prison term, two years probation, $150,000 in fines and 1,200 hours of community service, North’s conviction was overturned last July by a 2-1 appeals court ruling. Walsh is seeking a rehearing of the case.

--Former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter for five felonies involving conspiracy, obstruction of Congress and false statements. Sentenced to six months in prison, Poindexter’s appeal is scheduled for argument next Feb. 28.

--Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard V. Secord, a businessman who helped arrange and finance the secret arms shipments. He pleaded guilty to making false statements to the Iran-Contra congressional committees. He was sentenced to two years of probation.

--Albert A. Hakim, an Iranian-born California businessman, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of supplementing North’s salary. Lake Resources Inc., in which Hakim was the principal shareholder, pleaded guilty to theft of government property through the diversion of Iranian arms sales proceeds to the Nicaraguan rebels. Hakim was sentenced to two years of supervised probation and fined $5,000. Lake Resources was ordered dissolved.

--Thomas G. Clines, a former CIA official, was found guilty of under-reporting his earnings to the Internal Revenue Service and falsely stating on his 1985 and 1986 tax returns that he had no foreign financial accounts. He received profits from Iran-Contra accounts. With his sentencing set for Nov. 29, he faces maximum penalty of 16 years in prison and $1 million in fines.

--Robert C. McFarlane, former national security adviser, pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress and was sentenced to two years’ probation, a $20,000 fine and 200 hours of community service.

--Richard R. Miller, who headed a Washington public relations firm, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in connection with raising funds to buy weapons for the Contras. He was sentenced to two years’ probation.

--Carl R. (Spitz) Channell, a conservative fund raiser, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States and was sentenced to two years’ probation. He died last May 7 of complications from injuries suffered in an auto accident.