Perot Releases Tape of Call in Which He Urged North to Tell the Truth
Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot, responding to an allegation that he urged Oliver L. North to shield President Ronald Reagan from the Iran-Contra affair, on Friday released a tape of a telephone conversation in which he urges North to tell all.
North asserts in his just-published book that Perot asked him to protect Reagan.
Perot said that in the 1986 conversation, which lasted more than 30 minutes, he repeatedly offered to pay North’s legal fees and family expenses if the former White House aide told his story fully and quickly.
“I personally believe the smart thing for you to do is dump it all out there and dump it fast,” Perot said on the tape.
In his book, “Under Fire: An American Story,” North wrote that Perot asked him to protect Reagan during two December, 1986, meetings with North’s lawyer, Brendan V. Sullivan Jr., at the attorney’s office in Washington.
Perot said he met with North and Sullivan once. He said the tape he released Friday was of the Dec. 15, 1986, phone conversation that set up the meeting.
North did not know the telephone conversation was being taped, Perot said. Sullivan didn’t return a phone call Friday.
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